


The Rise of the Drackens: The Scaled Bits

by StarLight_Massacre



Series: The Dracken Universe [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M, Part of the Dracken Universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-27
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 20:35:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 54
Words: 289,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarLight_Massacre/pseuds/StarLight_Massacre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A companion story to The Rise of the Drackens - featuring Harry, Draco, Blaise, Nasta and Max, their baby boy and their families and the extensive world of the Drackens. Slash. Mpreg. Moresomes. Nasaxdraisery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Lonely Time of Year

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This One-shot was grown in my mind from Nasta’s point of view from Chapter Thirty-Three – Going Home when he speaks of how lucky he is to have Harry and how much he loves him and how he no longer cares for the broken peace that had once surrounded his life, now we find out exactly why Nasta thinks himself the luckiest man in the world.
> 
> This is set two years before Nasta meets Harry! Nasta is thirty-four and has been living away from his Dad and Brother for sixteen years.

A Lonely Time of Year

Nasta Tabrien Delericey, aged thirty-four, looked around at his small apartment and sighed. He loved his apartment, loved the independence it gave him, the seclusion from people he just didn’t want to be around. He loved the peace and the quiet it offered him, the solitude after a hard day at the Brecon Dragon Reserve, but this time of year more than any other was really the time when he most wished that he had someone to share his life with.  
It was Christmas Day and he was alone, stuck in his apartment with nothing to do. His Father was in Dubai and his older brother Sanex had been invited to spend the day with his current girlfriend’s family.  
He had originally been going with his Father, but his most favourite Welsh green dragon at the reserve had come down with an illness and he, as a senior handler, had been needed to help move the dragon, named Caronwyn, to the medical enclosure and find out what was wrong with her and his Dad had gone to Dubai without him so he didn’t miss his work meeting scheduled for Boxing Day.  
Nasta had cancelled all of his Christmas plans, expecting, along with two other handlers, to be spending the entire of Christmas and beyond at the reserve with a sick dragon. It had turned out that Caronwyn had just eaten a dead and rotted sheep, nothing serious and they had quickly remedied the situation.  
Now instead of laughing and joking with two of his friends from the reserve as they were busy with a sick dragon, he was sat in his apartment all alone on Christmas Day, wishing that he had had someone here waiting for him to spend the day with.   
He probably could have gone to his Dad in Dubai this morning, but he knew his Dad would have made plans so he wasn’t on his own for Christmas either, he was likely spending the day with the other businessmen that had flooed out to Dubai with him and if it was one thing Nasta couldn’t stand, it was businessmen, add in that they would probably be drinking and complaining about their wives and children, their pet dog and Nasta would rather poke a sleeping dragon in the eye with a short stick than spend Christmas with them, even if he was with his Dad.  
He had opened his few presents from his brother and Father and had smiled at their cards, but now he was bored and lonely. It was only really around Christmas that he felt this way, felt broody for a couple of kids that looked like him excitedly ripping open a mountain of presents, laughing in that contagious childish giggle, showing him and their Mother what they had gotten as if they hadn’t spent half of the year buying and wrapping them before sneaking down on Christmas Eve night and laying them out in perfect piles.   
He could close his eyes and imagine a pretty, loving woman coming out of the kitchen, laying out the Christmas dinner on the table as he kept the kids entertained and out of her hair due to the fact that he couldn’t cook much past the basics and would likely be more of a hindrance than a help.   
Nasta opened his eyes and sighed sadly as he couldn’t get rid of the image. He hadn’t seen the point in cooking a full dinner just for himself so he had just eaten a simple pasta meal for one. He had hoped that he would be happily mated by now, but none of the submissives were even close to what he was looking for in a life partner. He had debated just taking any one of them, just to crush the killing loneliness he felt in his heart, but he knew himself and he knew he would end up loathing his mate and his own life after a while, besides how could he justify having children with someone so self-centred that they couldn’t see past the end of their own nose? How could he put innocent children through that?  
So here he was, thirty-four years old, alone and childless on Christmas Day, just willing the day to end so he could go back to work tomorrow and the world went back to normal.  
He felt miserable and grouchy as he knew that all around him there were people celebrating the holidays with their families and he was stuck here, in this self-made prison, all alone and hating it. He wanted a family, he wanted a mate, someone to spend the rest of his life with, but he was unwilling to lower his standards, from what he had learnt from the last eighteen years observing the submissive Drackens he met from all over the world, he was going to die a lonely old man and that thought depressed him even more.   
He poured a shot of Firewhiskey into a glass, he wasn’t one to usually drink and his Father would skin him alive if he even knew he had the bottle in his apartment, regardless that it had been a gift from one of the guys at the reserve, but he felt like he was drowning in a sea of his own misery, he needed something, anything, to level out his emotions and this was all he had.  
Taking the shot back in one long swallow Nasta fell back onto his settee feeling crushed by the oppressive silence stretching on and endlessly on around him. He grappled for his wand from its resting place on the coffee table and flicked it at the radio hoping to relieve the stifling silence with something that didn’t make him feel worse, but every station was full of Christmas cheer and he couldn’t take it.  
He flicked his wand again and switched the radio off, he summoned the shot glass and the bottle of Firewhiskey, he poured himself another glass and tipped it back. There was a burn at the corners of his eyes and he cursed himself. He would not cry over his situation! It was his own fault that he was mateless! He was too picky, had too high a standard, if he hadn’t been either then he could be mated and have several children by now! It was his own fault and he refused to bawl his eyes out like he had last Christmas when he had come home to his cold, empty apartment after visiting his Dad.  
Giving up as a tear squeezed its way out of his closed eye; Nasta drew in a deep, shuddering breath and tried to control himself and his crushing loneliness. Tomorrow he’d be absolutely fine, tomorrow he’d go back to work, go back to being with his dragons, tomorrow it wouldn’t matter that he had no family, no mate to love, to hold and cherish, to love him back just as much, no kids to adore, teach and protect. Tomorrow would be another day and he’d go back to enjoying the peace and quiet of his self-made fortress, but for now…now he summoned a vial of store-bought sleeping potion and downed it in one go, it was only one in the afternoon, but he couldn’t take much more of today. Today of all days he loathed the silence of his apartment, hated the peace and solitude, despised the fact that he had such high standards when it came to taking a mate and detested that he had no children to share his love with on this very special day.   
Tomorrow would be a different day, the magic of Christmas would be over and people would start interacting with the outside world again, but for now Nasta would sleep. Sleep so the bitter loneliness he felt on this day of the year wouldn’t eat him alive. One day he would have a mate, one Christmas he would have children to love and enjoy, but it wasn’t this Christmas, so for now he would sleep until it was all over and the loneliest day of the year for him would pass by without him noticing.

\----------------------------------------- X


	2. The Morning After Potion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one-shot is, of course, the morning after Draco bottomed to Nasta and Max and we get to find out exactly why Draco now accepts himself, his Dracken and his mates since that night.  
> This chapter has a vaguely sexual under current, talk of past sex; talk of the male body parts, slightly sexual fingering for medicinal purposes and male masturbation, so consider yourselves warned, if you don’t wanna know, don’t read.

The Morning After Potion

Draco Abraxas Malfoy, aged seventeen as of yesterday, woke up with a stretch. He looked around him in the bed and as he saw the four other sleeping males, all cuddled up together, he himself wrapped up in a pair of large arms, his own arms wrapped firmly around a heavily sleeping Harry, he felt the familiar contradicting emotions of love, lust and shame for being with four other men, for loving four other men. The latter emotion was slowly being swallowed by the other two emotions and he was sure, in time, it would disappear completely.  
He had now been a Dracken for a year and he felt no closer to accepting himself as he had on that first day, he thought that perhaps when his parents actually accepted him, only then would he be able to accept himself, but he had had a talk with Nasta one morning, when it had only been the two of them awake, and the older man had told him that it was the other way around, that only when he accepted himself would his parents accept him, but Draco couldn’t accept himself until he knew his parents would still love him, it was a vicious cycle that he was caught in and he had no idea how to break it.  
He wiggled a bit in discomfort as his cheeks burnt with the remembrance of what he had done last night, of what he had done when caught up in the moment of his emotions. He had felt love to his bursting point, lust to a lesser degree as he had watched Harry’s luscious pink lips wrapped around Nasta. He had gotten caught up in the moment and now he awoke to his missing virginity and the mounting shame of his actions. Malfoys were supposed to have steel control of themselves and their bodies and he had caved, he had surrendered his body to these four men in just a single moment of time, a single moment of weakness and it had cost him the entirety of his heart.  
He loved these four men. He loved them with his entire being and it frightened him. This level of love, the loss of control he had over himself, it terrified him.  
Draco looked over his shoulder as Max made a soft sound in his throat and shifted his very large body closer to his back, a hard something prodding his thigh. Draco went a bit pink as he realised exactly what that hard thing was and rolled over off of his side and onto his back. The lance of pain that ran up his spine had him yelling out.  
Nasta shot up with Blaise and Harry clutched to his chest, his black wings with their yellow-gold scales wrapped protectively around them like a shield and Max had him swiped up into his own arms as the two of them looked around alertly for the danger even as Harry yawned and blearily gazed about lazily with half closed eyes. Harry began falling asleep again, lolling against Blaise and Draco felt awful for waking him up.

“What the hell?” Nasta grumbled his voice sleep gruff and gravelly.

“Why did you yell?” Max asked as he pulled him back to look up at him.

“I’m in pain.” Draco hissed out as he arched his back against another spasm of pain.

That made all of them blink. Harry opened his eyes a crack and actually grinned sleepily at him.

“Told you it hurt the morning after. Just imagine ten days of continuous sex, all of it rough and primal, not the soft and gentle you had last night, from four men of varying lengths and girths. I’m bloody sore.”

Max laid him down gently and Draco felt like punching that strong, concerned face. He was not a bloody child! He could handle a bit of bloody pain!

“I…”

“Hush.” Nasta ordered and Draco felt his mouth gently close, he could speak if he wanted to, but he knew it would displease the top dominant, he knew he could be punished if he displeased the top dominant, he didn’t like it, but he remained silent.

“We know how you feel.” Nasta told him quietly as he swayed his arms lightly, Harry sleeping like a baby in his arms. Draco knew if Harry had been any more alert than he was he would have pitched a fit about how he was being treated, but Nasta seemed to be doing it unconsciously as all of his attention was on him.

“We know you don’t want to be fussed over, but we will not have you going around in pain, now you can apply the potion yourself, or one of us can do it for you, but you will have it applied one way or another.”

Draco sighed and pushed the vial of potion at Max, a light staining of pink on his face. Harry had awful trouble trying to apply the potion in the right place and Draco had no aspirations of either making a fool of himself, or prolonging this experience any longer than necessary.  
Max smiled lovingly at him at the show of trust he had given the older, bigger male. He huffed and turned his head away as Max coated a finger in the potion and watched Nasta rock Harry like a toddler instead. Blaise was lying down again, but those indigo eyes were open and watching him with love. Draco had never thought that Blaise, his friend since childhood, his roommate of six years and his playmate of forever would ever become one of his sexual partners; he had thought that it would never work between them, but with the addition of Max, Nasta and Harry, it worked so well.  
A finger touched one of his most private places and he jumped and squirmed. Blaise sidled over to lay half on his body, nuzzling his cheek lovingly and soothingly as Max once again touched him with a potion coated finger. That finger eased its way inside his body and Draco felt his body burn with embarrassment as it quickly sought out the sore muscles and stroked them.  
Along with a small edge of pain, Draco felt near overwhelming pleasure as he remembered what this action had brought him last night and he couldn’t stop himself from reacting with a small sigh from the back of his throat and a twitch of interest from his flaccid cock. Max chuckled and leant down to kiss his belly.

“Now now Draco. Not this morning, you need to recover from last night first, but I’d be more than happy to make love to you again.” Max winked and Draco went bright pink, the darkest his incredibly pale skin could flush.

“Stop teasing him Max.” Nasta chastised lightly. “Apply the potion and leave Draco to recover from your abuses from last night.”

“My abuses? Nasta love, we both know that you’re the thickest of us, if anyone ripped him during sex it was you.”

“He isn’t ripped, he’s just sore; you are the longest out of us all, if anyone made him sore it was you by going so deep into his body.” Nasta countered with a smile.

Max snorted and went back to his job of carefully rubbing potion into Draco’s internal muscles.

“There, all done.” Max said happily as he pulled his finger free of Draco’s body. 

Draco shot up and climbed out of the bed. “I’m going for a shower.”

“Try not to wash off the potion or we’ll have to apply it again.” Nasta said seriously as he laid a sleeping Harry back on the bed, tucking him under the duvet.

Draco didn’t answer as he rushed into the bathroom and into the shower. He turned on the water and just stood there. He didn’t really want a shower, he just wanted some space to think and take care of the by-product of having a finger shoved inside of him, rubbing so gently.  
He gripped himself tightly and closed his eyes as he stroked. He was so confused! He loved those men, he had let them take his body, had taken pleasure from it, he had loved it even, but he wasn’t supposed to. He had been interested in women, before his inheritance he had loved looking at the female form, had admired it, had fantasised about it. Even after his inheritance he had still been daydreaming over women, right up until he met Harry when he was calling with his pheromones for a mate.  
Harry had turned into a beautiful, gorgeous, slender and supple man. Those large eyes, those thick eyelashes, the curved, sensual mouth. It would have been easy to mistake him for a female if it wasn’t for that hair and his personality. He could handle the thoughts that his daydreams had been confusing Harry with women, he could handle being gay for Harry, but now he wasn’t only gay for Harry. He was gay for three other men and Harry.  
The thought of Max’s grin, Nasta’s strength and Blaise’s eyes all got him aroused just as much as Harry did and it confused the hell out of him! He stroked himself faster as he thought of the four men in the bedroom, of his four men. They were his and they loved him just as much as he had come to love them.  
Draco swallowed a groan and squeezed himself tightly. He couldn’t imagine living without those four men now. The very thought of it clenched his heart in icy fear. They were a family now, all of them and the baby of course, a baby that could be his.  
He jerked himself as the water beating down on his back heated his body and turned it a soft, cherry blossom pink. Those men in the next room cared for him, they weren’t horrible or nasty, they weren’t a set-up, arranged marriage between his parents and theirs, he was with them because he loved them and they loved him and they would never intentionally set out to hurt him, just as he wouldn’t ever want to hurt them.  
Draco released himself over the shower wall with a soft cry and he sunk down to sit against the shower door. He had never been happier than he had been during these past few months with those men. His heart was overflowing with love for them and the baby. He had settled into a routine with them, he could talk to them, he confided in them, he was enjoying his current life and he didn’t want to give it up. He wouldn’t ever give this up and it was with that thought that he turned his mind sadly to his parents. It would smother something inside of him to be disowned by them, it would cut him up inside and rip his heart to pieces, but he knew that even if all of that happened, Harry, Blaise, Max and Nasta would be there to help him through it, that those four men would hold him as he cried, would sooth him as he screamed, would lovingly put his heart back together piece by tiny piece and they would do it without once complaining, would do it because they loved him so very much.  
It was in that moment, lying supported against the shower door, that Draco realised that he couldn’t give those four men up. Not even for his parents could he give up the life and love he now had, the happiness he felt. A single tear traced down his cheek, mingling with the water from the showerhead as he realised that if it came down to an ultimatum between his parents or his mates, then he would wholeheartedly choose Harry, Nasta, Blaise and Max and he would have absolutely no regrets about doing so.  
Draco smiled as he stood up and switched the shower off; he wrapped himself in a fluffy towel and padded on the tiles of the bathroom floor to his clothes. He felt lighter now that he had accepted that he would be with these men for the rest of his life, that his children would be carried and birthed by Harry. Keeping his parents happy in this situation meant making himself utterly miserable and he couldn’t do that to himself, he couldn’t do it to Harry and the others, he couldn’t abandon the baby that could possibly be his.   
With his clothes on and his mind made up, Draco went to start a new day living with his lovers, following Max’s infectious belly laugh to the kitchen where he was making breakfast like he always did, Nasta was reading the Daily Prophet that Harry’s owl, Hedwig, had brought whilst he was in the shower and Blaise was laughing along with Max. Nasta’s light scowl made Draco smile; it was obviously something the older man didn’t approve of. He settled down next to Nasta, who unconsciously shifted towards him and laid the paper down flat so they could read it together, it was with a tightening in his heart Draco realised Nasta had been doing this every morning they had shared together. He was easily accepted into their little morning bubble, even though Harry was still asleep in bed. They included him with an ease that spoke of their comfort with him, there was no awkwardness, no forced smiles or greetings, no tension, it was just relaxed and peaceful.  
Max laughed again as he set down an armful of plates, hugging Blaise to him, before he gave Draco his own plate of lovingly cooked food and gave him a kiss to the side of the head. It was the first time that Draco didn’t play holy hell with him for it; he didn’t shout, cuss, shove him away or complain. He just accepted the kiss with a small smile and began to eat his food. Max was faintly shocked, Draco could tell from his expression, but he just raised an eyebrow as he took a gulp of tea from his cup and Max went on to give Nasta his breakfast.  
It would take a bit of time and a bit more getting used to, but Draco was sure that he had made the right choice. He was happy here, happy with his four lovers and his unborn son. He didn’t want to give them up, so he wouldn’t, he was committed to them now forever and that thought made his soul shine and his heart pulse as he hid a smile behind his tea cup.

\---------------------------------------------------------------- X


	3. A Friendship That Will Never Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one-shot is a scene from Chapter Five – Blissful Days that was edited out to make way for the library scene with Draco and the follow-on scene with Professor Snape down by the lake, which both furthered the plot more than this little scene, no matter how heart-warming it is.   
> This is back when it was just Harry and Blaise, before Draco, Max and Nasta came onto the scene. It shows what Harry does when he has a free period when Blaise has Arithmancy.

A Friendship That Will Never Die

Harry smiled as he basked in the rare opportunity to be on his own, with his own level of peace. He loved Blaise so much even though it hadn’t been all that long since they had mated.  
It was insane, true love at first sight wasn’t real, but what did he have with Blaise if it wasn’t true love? He loved the man so much that his heart ached under the weight of his love.  
A screech had him happily opening his arms to accept the snowy white owl landing on his lap. He wrapped his arms around Hedwig and started stroking her as she clicked her beak in pleasure.

“Heya girl. How have you been?”

Hedwig cooed and nipped at his earlobe. Harry chuckled and started preening one of his first ever friends, grooming her feathers and plucking out the bent ones for her.  
She cooed and clicked in pleasure as he gently rubbed and petted her. He remembered when he had first been given her by Hagrid. He remembered the pleasure at receiving her, the adoration he felt towards her when she first nipped at him affectionately.   
He held her now like a teddy bear and cuddled her as he finished preening her and lay back stroking her as she settled down on him.

“I don’t know Hedwig. Being a creature isn’t so bad. Blaise is amazing; he gave me his last chocolate frog yesterday! Blaise loves chocolate frogs so I didn’t think he would ever give it to me.”

Hedwig cooed again and Harry laughed. 

“I shared it don’t worry, I snapped the head off and gave him the bigger body, though he let me keep the card, he doesn’t collect them, says it’s a scam made up by the confectionary company to get kids to spend more money on them, he just likes the chocolate.” 

Hedwig nipped at his ear before attacking a clump of his hair. Harry chuckled at her.

“It won’t lie flat Hedwig, no matter how much you preen it it’ll remain the same.”

Hedwig squawked indignantly at him and flew up onto the back of the settee, attacking his hair more viciously.

“I can't believe I need another mate. I don’t want any more Hedwig, what am I going to do? Elder Trintus says that I need another one to even get pregnant. I don’t want another mate, but I want children. I can see that Blaise doesn’t like the idea very much either, though again he want’s children.”

Hedwig cooed sympathetically and Harry smiled at her stroking her breast feathers.

“I guess we’ll just have to endure it and hope that every dominant in the hell hotel aren’t as self-centred and jerky as the ones thus far have proved to be. I mean they can’t all be downright bastards can they? There’s bound to be at least one that is kind and considerate that will actually listen to me instead of telling me how many trophies they have, if any word of it is true I’ll eat my own arm. It’s like being a Veela and having everyone shout out that they are vampire hunters, or Pro Quidditch players. It’s all lies just to get my attention and my interest, but it won't work because I'm not interested.”

Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he lay down on the settee, bringing Hedwig down with him.

“I love Blaise so much, but I’m worried for him. What if the other dominant hurts him? What if none of us get on or if the other dominant pushes Blaise out of the way or even kills him?”

Hedwig nuzzled him soothingly and nipped the tip of his nose. Harry laughed and cuddled his owl.

“I guess there really isn’t any point in worrying about it anymore Hedwig. It’s going to happen, that’s inevitable, my Dracken will never be happy with just Blaise and for that my heart goes out to him, but it’s out of both of our hands.”

Hedwig cooed at him and clicked her beak a few times. Harry smiled.

“I am sorry that it will never be just me and Blaise, but maybe another mate won't be so bad if I can pick right. Maybe the three of us could all come to love one another in time.”

Hedwig cooed again and nuzzled against his cheek. Harry yawned and snuggled back into the settee cushions further. He fell asleep with Hedwig dozing on his chest.  
Blaise came back from Arithmancy and saw the two of them together. His face melted into a soft, adoring smile as he brushed Harry’s hair from his face and kissed those sleep slack lips. A sleepy hoot had him looking at Harry’s snowy owl.  
He rubbed under her head, digging a finger gently into the side of her neck. She clicked in happiness as she was fussed over. Harry blinked an eye open and smiled.

“Hi Blaise.”

“Hey mio amore. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s alright; I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

“I see you two had some quality time together.”

“Yeah, but Hedwig’s going to go hunting soon, so me and you can cuddle for a bit.”

Blaise chuckled and kissed Harry again, only this time his mate kissed him back. Hedwig took flight with a soft, affectionate cuff to both of their heads, she sailed right through the window and off into the falling twilight.

“I didn’t realise that your Arithmancy class run so late.” Harry frowned.

“It is winter Prezioso. It gets darker earlier and I went to the library to get a few books first.”

Harry smiled and held his arms out for a cuddle. Blaise indulged him happily and they spent the next couple of hours just talking and snuggling on their settee. Neither of them were thinking of the second dominant, neither of them wanted to ruin what they currently had by talking of adding in a third person, for now they were happy and content.

\-------------------------------------------------------------- X


	4. The Play Date

The Play Date 

“I don’t want to go Mother!” A small, platinum blonde haired little boy whined stamping his small foot on the Persian rug.

“Draco darling we have been through this before, your Father has to go to work and I need to go to afternoon tea with Lady Greengrass. I thought you liked Blaise.”

“I do like Blaise; it’s his Mum I don’t like!”

“Mrs Zabini is a very prominent Pureblood Draco; there is no reason to be afraid of her.”

“I’m not afraid!” Draco answered quickly, too quickly.

“I know Mrs Zabini isn’t what you are used to darling but you must be polite. She is just bigger than most women usually are, she can't control it any more than you can control the colour of your hair.” Narcissa Malfoy coached her young son, straightening the collar of his elegant robes which were laid over his play clothes.

“I thought your play date was scheduled for eleven o’clock, Draco.” Lucius Malfoy chided as he walked into the room fastening his cuff links as a magically enchanted ribbon tied itself around his hair to keep it out of his way.

“I don’t want to go!” Draco replied stubbornly crossing his tiny arms over his chest, pushing his bottom lip out in a pout.

Lucius caught Draco’s chin in one hand and turned his son to face him. He tutted and lightly, gently pinched the protruding lip. He tugged on it and watched as Draco cringed away with a giggle.

“I have warned you not to pout before Draco.” He reminded. “Now why do you not wish to visit Blaise, I have been led to believe that he is a friend of yours.”

“He is afraid of Marianna darling.” Narcissa answered.

“I am not afraid!” Draco cut in with another foot stamp.

“Do not do that on the rug Draco.” Lucius admonished.

Draco huffed and turned to face away from his parents, sulking.

Lucius chuckled and scooped his son into his arms and held him against his chest.

“You are very spoilt Draco.” He whispered to his son, but had no doubts that his Wife could also hear him. “I sometimes feel that I have ruined you and your Mother, but the both of you spoil me so I think that it is only fair to repay you in kind.”

Draco turned to look at his Dad. He was confused. “How do I spoil you?” He asked with a frown.

Lucius chuckled and pulled his Wife into his shoulder with one arm, the other holding Draco securely.

“You spoil me by being here Draco. You and your Mother are the greatest gifts I could have ever asked for and I consider myself spoilt every single day that you are both with me.”

“Blaise doesn’t have a Dad; does that mean he isn’t as spoilt as me?” Draco asked.

“I doubt anyone could be as spoilt as you Draco.” Lucius answered wryly. “But you should never tell Blaise this, he will get upset and you don’t want his Mother angry with you.”

Draco went paler than he usually was and clung to his Father. “I don’t want to go!” 

Lucius sighed and sat in the armchair, Draco on his lap.

“You will find as you grow older Draco that we often must do things we don’t want to do, do you think that I like going to work all day every day? That I get taken away from spending time with you and your Mother?”

“Why do you then?” Draco asked.

“Because I must Draco. I go to work so you can have the toys you want, food to eat, the finest robes to wear. I work because I love you.”

“Love you too.” Draco muttered bashfully, playing with the silver fastenings on his Father’s cloak.

Lucius chuckled and gripped Draco’s tiny hands in his own. Draco was a very small boy for his age, Lucius had no doubts that he would grow into a fine young man, but at the moment he looked at those tiny, pale, dimpled hands resting, lost, in his own larger ones.  
His son was so small, so fragile, but was showing the stubborn, hard willed edge that all Malfoys had. He had a fine son, one who would be strong and proud. He would teach Draco everything he knew so that his son may surpass him one day as he had surpassed his own Father.

“The lesson of today is that we do things we do not want to because we must Draco. If I didn’t work to keep us fed and clothed we would be nothing more than street urchins. Your Mother must go to her tea parties because she must keep up the social name of Malfoy and you must go to the Zabini’s for a few hours because we cannot possibly leave you here on your own and I would think you would have even less fun if you went with your Mother, I hear Peony Parkinson is going to bring her daughter Pansy to the tea party.” 

Draco pulled a face and stuck out his tongue. Lucius chuckled and gripped that wet tongue and tugged it. 

“I have also warned you about poking this tongue of yours outside your mouth.”

Draco giggled again and squirmed on his Father’s lap.

“Why are all girls icky?” Draco asked his Father seriously.

Lucius laughed a full belly laugh, one of few he had uttered in the past few years. He looked to his Wife who laughed delicately behind her hand.

“Is it just Pansy you find ‘icky’ or is it all girls?”

“Astoria is alright, but Daphne and Pansy are icky.” Draco told his Father.

“Ah but Astoria is just a baby, Draco. She’s only two years old.” Narcissa told him.

“She’s still the best girl from my friends.”

“What about Millicent Bulstrode?” Lucius asked. “I thought you liked Millicent?”

Draco cocked his head innocently as he scrunched up his face. “Millie’s a girl?”

Lucius choked back his laughter as Narcissa laughed joyfully beside him.

“Millie’s not a girl!” Draco said firmly and stubbornly. “He’s bigger than me and Blaise! Even Theo! He looks like Marcus. I thought they were boy cousins.”

“Marcus, the Flint Heir?” Narcissa asked as she calmed down, dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief that her Husband had given her.

Draco nodded seriously. “Marcus is a big boy. He’s five years older than I am. He’s going to Hogwarts next year.”

“I am proud of you to know that you have taken in this information and kept it for future reference Draco.”

“Refrance?” Draco questioned, cocking his head again and stumbling over the unfamiliar word.

“Reference, in this context it means for future use sweetheart.” Narcissa informed him.

“Oh.” Draco grinned happily and puffed up in pride as he was praised by his Father.

“You will do the name of Malfoy proud one day Draco.”

Lucius stood up and looked at his time piece. 

“I’m going to be late if I don’t go now.”

“Malfoys are never late!” Draco chirped from his Father’s arm.

“No, Malfoys are never late, so why don’t you keep your appointment with Blaise before you become the first Malfoy in a century to be late to a prescheduled meeting.” Lucius chided, tapping Draco’s bottom before setting him on the floor.

Draco nodded seriously. “I’ll keep my appointment because I am a Malfoy.”

“That’s my son.” Lucius said in pride as he gave Narcissa a hug and a peck on the cheek before leaning down and giving Draco a kiss. “I shall see you for your bedtime story.”

“We’ll be reading my new book Daddy! The one about the Hippogriff and the baby dragon!”

“I look forward to it Draco, behave yourself at the Zabini’s.”

“A Malfoy never misbehaves in the presence of a non-family member!”

“You make sure you remember that at the Zabini’s.”

Lucius flooed to the Ministry leaving his son in the capable hands of his Wife, who quickly held onto Draco and flooed to Marianna’s home in France to keep the play date they had scheduled for their sons.

\----------------------------------------------- X

Draco held Blaise’s hand as they wandered over the uneven ground. Blaise was bigger than he was and older, Blaise was already six and the bigger boy always caught him before he could hit the ground and get muddy or hurt.

“Where are we going?” Draco asked.

Blaise pointed to a short stone wall in the middle of the grass.

“Ma mère had a pond built.” Blaise answered slowly and in a very heavy French accent.

Draco often had trouble understanding Blaise and Blaise sometimes didn’t understand what he was saying if he used a word that the other boy didn’t understand, but they managed and Draco was learning more French, what his parents had wanted when they started making the play dates, and Blaise was learning better English, what his Mother had wanted when they had started these play dates.  
Blaise caught Draco once again as the little blonde slipped and held him around the chest so he wouldn’t get dirty. He led Draco over to the pond that was covered with a large net to stop them from falling in, though he knew his Mum had also layered it with protective spells to keep him safe when he played in the garden.  
Draco gasped as he saw the brightly coloured fishes in the pond; he climbed onto the short wall so he could dip his hand into the water and touch them. Blaise clambered up and joined him and they giggled as they both tried to catch the fish through the holes in the net.  
Mrs Zabini came out to collect them to give them lunch and put them down for a nap afterwards. Draco snuggled into Blaise and didn’t know that at that moment he was having his photo taken.  
Draco woke up with a stretch and gave out a little yawn. He looked around and realised that he was in his own home, on the living room rug. He let out a happy yip and turned onto his stomach, looking around for his Mum.  
She was reading a grown-up book on the settee. She looked at him with soft eyes and Draco grinned back at her, rubbing the gritty bits from his eyes that his Mother said the sandman left behind after putting him to sleep.  
He clambered onto the settee and rested against his Mother until he felt awake enough to start playing. He wiggled onto the floor, never noticing his Mother’s hand hovering behind him.

“Dobby!” He called out.

The house elf popped into the room and started squeaking and bowing, breaking the peaceful silence that had engulfed the room with high pitched squeals.

“Be quiet!” He snapped. “I want my train set, go and get it.”

The elf nodded and bowed again, leaving the room and coming back quickly with a wooden box of wooden click-in tracks and hand crafted, hand painted trains.

“Is there anything else young Master wishes of Dobby?”

“No, go away.” Draco answered, already shoulder deep in the wooden crate searching for his favourite train. A green one with silver snakes on it that his Grandfather had given to him on his third birthday.

Draco set up his tracks in a large, wide pattern, proudly putting in tunnels and bridges, using all of the space in the living room, even going under the coffee table. 

“Mummy look!” He said happily as he finished his biggest track yet.

Narcissa peeked around her book and acted surprised, like she was only just seeing Draco’s creation and hadn’t been checking on him every ten minutes.

“Oh how wonderful Draco darling, perhaps you should become an architect.”

“Arkitet?”

“Architect Draco, a very skilled person who draws out the plans to make buildings.”

Draco grinned and clicked his trains together and began crawling around the floor, pushing his trains around the track he had built.  
He ate his dinner with the minimal of fuss, even his cauliflower, even though he didn’t like it very much, because Malfoys were expected to eat everything on their plates. He let his Mother bathe him, only complaining a little bit when shampoo dribbled in his eye because he actually really liked baths, though Theo didn’t. Theo hated baths and often had his hand slapped by his Father. Draco didn’t want to have his hand slapped by his Father; his Daddy’s hands were so much bigger than his.  
He was snuggled up in bed in his pyjamas and had his story book ready and waiting for six o’clock when his Daddy would come and read to him. His Daddy would always be there at six o’clock because he promised, and not only did Malfoys always keep their promise, but they were never late for prescheduled meetings and this meeting had been scheduled four years ago when Lucius Malfoy had first picked up a book to read his wide awake baby son to sleep.

\-------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I love this one. I’m not sure if it’s the glimpse into Lucius Malfoy before he was ruined by Voldemort or if it was Draco and Blaise being children, but I loved writing it and I love reading it. I think a baby Harry is in order next.
> 
> Starlight Massacre. X


	5. A Father's Love

A Father’s Love

James Potter held his baby son close to his heart. Baby Harry was sound asleep in his arms, laying his tiny head over his heart. He loved Harry so much that it choked him sometimes, when he thought too hard about his son, when he thought of Harry never being born, when he thought of the evil man that was now so intent on killing his tiny son.  
Harry was a tiny baby, he had always been tiny and it tugged on every single protective string inside his heart. He couldn’t even put Harry down to sleep in his crib, even though Lily warned him that it could injure Harry’s back. He always felt more content to hold Harry against him, bonding with the baby son that looked almost identical to himself. He had been so happy, so amazed when Harry’s baby blue eyes had turned his Mother’s startling, stunning emerald green, happy but also a tiny bit disappointed that Harry wouldn’t be a complete James Junior, though he refused to tell that to anyone.   
James carefully sat on his favourite chair, bending slowly so he didn’t wake Harry. It wasn’t all that long ago when he had been playing pranks and lounging around with his friends on the lawns of Hogwarts. It seemed so long ago but he was only twenty-two and as he stared at the smooth, rounded face of his baby boy, he could hardly remember those times when he was a cruel and selfish bully.  
Holding Harry in his arms brought out his protective side, the side that would fight to the death so his little Harry could live. He could still appreciate a good joke, he could still have a laugh, but it was all secondary to Harry. Nothing came before Harry, not even Lily, the love of his life.  
Harry snuffled in his sleep and squirmed closer to the warmth of his body and James broke out into a loving smile that he couldn’t even attempt to control. Harry really was a little angel and Sirius would never let it go if he heard James say that out loud, but James really didn’t care at that moment as he held Harry impossible closer, watching indulgently as one tiny fist came up to a tiny cupids bow mouth and those plump lips wrapped around Harry’s little knuckles as his son suckled at them.  
He would do anything for Harry. He would give him anything he wanted, do anything he wanted, spare him any and all pain and he would lay down his life for Harry in a heartbeat. Harry was his son, was his angel and anyone who wanted to take him away would meet the end of his wand first, or even his fist.

“James? Do you have Harry?” Lily called out softly as she came into the living room. She rolled her eyes as she saw them both. “Of course you do, ask a silly question.”

Lily sat on the arm of his chair and stroked a tuft of jet black hair behind Harry’s tiny elfin ears and stroked a flushed cheek.

“He’s so beautiful.” She whispered and James silently agreed with her.

“He isn’t beautiful Lily love; he’s a handsome young man. Honestly he’ll pitch a fit in later years when he hears you call him beautiful of all things.”

Lily laughed and ruffled up his hair like he had used to when he was younger, now it annoyed him. Respectable Father’s didn’t have messy hair and unkempt clothing.

“Lily!” He whined. “I spent half the morning styling my hair.”

Lily kissed his cheek and James melted into the chair. He still loved her so very much.

“Harry’s so perfect.” She said as she gazed at her baby son.

“Lily, I’ve been thinking. Let’s not have any more children. Harry’s so perfect and I want to be able to focus everything on him, plus with Voldemort running around it’ll be easier to keep track of just the one child.”

“Don’t say that name in front of Harry!” Lily scolded him before replying to him. “I was thinking the same thing, but you love Harry so much that I thought that maybe you’d want more children over the years.”

“No, I only want Harry.” James replied. 

Truthfully he didn’t think his heart would take being stretched more than three ways, he loved Lily, he loved Sirius, but he adored Harry and he was afraid that another child would pale in comparison to his first child, he wasn’t one of those Pureblood supremacist that ignored their daughters in favour of their firstborn son, even though he was a Pureblood and had been raised in those circles. It wouldn’t have mattered to him if Harry had been born a female, he still would have loved her, still would have laid his life down for her and he would have felt the same, he wouldn’t have wanted another child after her. He wanted to devote all of his time, all of his energy to his child and it would be easier to do that if there was just the one.

“You don’t think he’ll be lonely growing up without siblings do you?” Lily fretted. “I mean, Remus would never have any children because of his little furry problem, Sirius would rather shave his head than have a child and Peter, well Peter can barely keep a girlfriend for more than a month.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine Lily. We can set up play dates for him, Frank and Alice have had a baby who is about the same age as Harry, Edgar Bones had a daughter last March and Gideon and Fabian Prewett have been banging on about their Nephews for years. I’m sure Harry will make friends.”

Lily nodded and run a hand down Harry’s back, cupping his nappy clad bottom for a moment before pinching a little toe and wiggling it.

“Why don’t you put Harry to bed James? Lunch is just about done.”

“He’ll be waking up from his nap soon, what if I’m not there when he wakes up?”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine James, we have the baby monitor on.”

James nodded and reluctantly got to his feet and climbed the stairs with his precious bundle of eleven month old child. He carefully, gently, slowly lowered Harry into his cot and bent over to kiss his son’s baby smooth cheek.

“I love you Harry, my little angel, and I’m never going to let anything happen to you.” He whispered as he pulled a light summer blanket over Harry’s legs and left the nursery to wolf down his lunch so he could get back to Harry sooner. He never saw one little green eye crack open and two little hands clenched into fists as little elven month old Harry missed the sound of his Father’s strong, steady heartbeat against his ear.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’ve read a lot of baby Harry fics and a lot of them show James as an immature childish man who barely looks after Harry properly and doesn’t know how to take care of his son at all and relied heavily on Lily to do most of the work. I don’t see James like that. I see him as a matured man who finally grew up, got the woman of his dreams and a child he would die for.   
> There are no manuals on how to look after a baby, the majority of it is instinct and common sense that comes as the baby is born, comes from trial and error and good old fashioned practise. James might have been a goof in school and he might still have moments of silliness with his lifelong friends, but having a child matures most people and I don’t see James as being immature or stupid at all around Harry. I see him being a loving, responsible Father who loves his son enough to die for him and I wanted to share with you my view of James the Father.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	6. Family Guardians

Family Guardians

Myron Maddison was distracted. He admitted that he let very little distract him, but one of the things that did distract him, was his family. He loved his Wife and Husband, his five beautiful, wonderful children, his two grandchildren and his beautiful son-in-law. He could admit to himself that he was not particularly fond of his oldest daughter’s Husband and even less fond of his only daughter-in-law, though he would never admit such to Caesar.  
Harry bounced past him yet again, such a happy grin plastered onto his face, those stunning eyes wide and genuine as he embraced Nasta Delericey on his way to one of the benches where a jug of still lemonade was situated. That tiny little submissive Dracken was better than he had ever hoped for his oldest son; he just wished that Harry had a clone that was mated to Caesar, even though he knew his second son was particularly taken with female forms. Caesar admitted, very vulgarly, that he loved women’s breasts too much to ever be comfortable with a man.  
Myron once again scanned the entire area, noting where everyone was, making sure there was no one there that shouldn’t have been, that there were no unexpected dangers, took in the sullen face of Amelle with her arms wrapped tightly around a pink shawl, his two week old granddaughter, Eleonora, must have been sweltering hot and he could not understand why Caesar was doing nothing about it. He took in his first grandson, Braiden, being passed around like the heart of the party, being cooed over by so many different people. He smiled, Harry was so different to Amelle and as he watched his Wife become one of those cooing, shrieking baby hoarders, he was so very glad.  
Harry darted past him again, running full pelt towards a plump red headed woman whom he recognised as the Weasley Matriarch, Harry’s sort of adopted family. It didn’t bear thinking about how Harry had grown up. He clenched a huge fist until his knuckles cracked. Those beasts would pay for harming the kind, sweet boy who was now a part of his family.  
Speaking, or rather thinking, about those beasts harming children brought his attention to one Lucius Malfoy and the bruise forming on the left side of Harry’s jaw. His own jaw clenched as he swallowed back a threatening growl.

“What’s the matter love?” Richard asked as he wrapped an arm around his thick bicep.

Myron looked down into those gorgeous brown eyes and kissed Richard’s slightly chapped lips; he immediately passed over his glass of lemonade and watched critically as Richard slowly sipped it down.

“It’s paining you again, isn’t it?” He asked mildly and watched as Richard grimaced as he swallowed and his mate moved a slender hand to cup his throat and the mounds of scar tissue there.

“No more than usual.” Richard answered tightly. “I’ve laughed too much to escape pain.”

Myron hated that his mate, his Husband, his friend couldn’t laugh as much as he wanted to because of that damned scar. Richard was one of the most fun loving people he had ever met; it was distressing to see him hold himself back, to cringe in pain as he laughed, it had used to come so easily to him, Richard’s laugh would always be the first sound he heard in the mornings, the highlight of his day had been listening to Richard laughing accompanied by five childish squeals and giggles of joy. But after the incident that had taken away their youngest, unborn son and almost claimed their submissive, the incident that had scarred Richard permanently and had almost killed him, the incident that had left them feeling betrayed and bereft, Richard had laughed less, had become more serious, he had grown up and Myron loathed the bastards that had ripped the innocence from both of his mates eyes. He had loved that little gleam of innocence they both held, it had been what drew him to Ashleigh during her mate meeting, it had been that gleam in her eyes, the soft laughter, the childish way she acted when she felt comfortable that had made him fight fang and claw for her, he had killed eighteen other dominants during Ashleigh’s three week meeting and she had gone and chosen Richard. A new arrival, a younger, slender man with average wings, it wasn’t often that a submissive chose a dominant younger than herself, but Ashleigh had felt a kinship with Richard. He made her laugh until tears streamed down her face, even if he was inappropriate at times, he made her childish nature come to the forefront with his own childishness instead of burying it or suppressing it like other dominants would wish to do, they were so similar, so perfect together, he had been so jealous.   
Ashleigh had called another meeting only a month after she had chosen Richard and he had felt hope swell within him. He had another chance, one last chance he realised as Ashleigh addressed them holding Richard’s hand tightly, lovingly. They were deeply in love after such little time. She had needed a second mate to get her pregnant and he swore he would kill every other dominant in the room to have her.  
It was Richard who noticed him, not Ashleigh. It was Richard who was drawn to him and he tugged Ashleigh towards him as well with his interest. Myron had been set to force himself to like Richard to get Ashleigh, but it hadn’t been necessary. Richard was so easy to love, so much like Ashleigh that the things he had loved about her, he loved in Richard also. It was so easy to love Richard, so very easy to love them both and he was so glad that they had seen something in him, that they had chosen him as their final mate.  
But he had gone on a tangent as he caught sight of long, platinum blonde hair. He never wanted the little gleam of innocence to leave Harry’s stunning emerald eyes. It had already been faded when they had met and with the revelation that his home life was abusive, it wasn’t any wonder, but he would not stand to see his tiny son-in-law hit in his presence or even out of his sight, he would destroy the threat to that little smidgen of innocence that Harry had left, he would preserve it within Harry as he hadn’t been able to with his own mates.

“I think Lucius Malfoy and I need to have a little chat.” Myron growled.

“I was thinking the same thing.” An angered voice beside him agreed.

Myron looked over to Aneirin Delericey and the hot, burning anger he saw in those eyes made him nod in approval. All three of them would look out for Harry because he was special, because he treated their sons like actual people and not something to wipe his feet on as he walked over them.

“I was thinking that actions speak louder than words.” Richard put in.

“Let us not sink down to his level love.” Myron chastised lightly, even though he was feeling the same way.

Richard pulled a face that made Myron smile, just barest up tilt to his lips, but Richard saw it and he grinned. 

“Let’s go and show Mr Malfoy that he can't hit our Harry without repercussions.” Aneirin stated as he strode over to where Lucius was sneering at the recently arrived Weasley family. 

“We need to talk.” He said as soon as he reached Lucius, who raised a perfectly sculpted blonde eyebrow.

“Don’t look like that; I’m sure you know what we’re on about.” Richard told the Malfoy Patriarch.

“Gentlemen, why don’t we take this some place more private? Maximilius’ orchard should do just fine.” Myron cut in.

The four of them walked towards the orchard and Myron led them deep enough in so that they couldn’t see Max’s back garden any more and more importantly, no one from the back garden could see them.  
He turned in a flash and bunched Lucius’ shirt collar in his hands, pulling the shorter man off of his feet and up to his face.

“How dare you strike Harry!” He hissed. “How dare you hit him! He is a seventeen year old boy! What were you thinking?!”

Richard placed a calming hand on his back and Myron breathed deeply, letting Lucius Malfoy fall back to the floor.

“What did Harry do to deserve being struck?” Aneirin asked.

“No child ever deserves to be struck!” Myron yelled, quickly losing his composure.

“I have already explained to Harry and my Wife and later I will explain to Draco that I struck Harry in a moment of anger which should never have happened. I lost my composure and I will work on never letting it happen again.” Lucius told them bitingly.

“Damn right it’ll never happen again.” Richard snarled. “If you try to harm Harry again I will take pleasure in eating your unworthy hands!”

“Now love, calm yourself.” Myron coached. They needed one another to keep their calm so they didn’t rip Lucius Malfoy limb from limb.

“I have explained that I had a rare lapse in judgement, I am not used to being spoken to the way Harry approached me, I reacted very undignified and my Father will be rolling in his grave at my ill-judged actions.”

“I don’t care if you had a lapse in judgement; I want you to swear an oath that it will never happen again!” Myron demanded.

“What would this oath entail?” Lucius asked with narrowed steel grey eyes, suspicion shining within them.

“That you will not ever strike a child, including Harry, ever again, that you will not maliciously harm him or purposefully seek to endanger or hurt him.” Aneirin supplied.

Lucius Malfoy was silent as he combed through the wording, trying to find any hidden double meanings and when he was happy that there were none, that he was not being set up and that the oath was doable, he begrudgingly agreed.

“Let us never speak of this incident again.” Myron told the three of them, calmer and feeling more like himself now that the threat had been terminated. The oath wouldn’t allow Lucius to do what he had sworn not to.

“Agreed.” Lucius answered as he straightened his shirt as they made to move out of the orchard and back towards the garden.

“So Lucius, how is the new Bill sitting with the Minister?” Myron asked as they exited the last of the trees as if they hadn’t just forced him to swear an oath in the orchard.

“He isn’t too happy that I am suddenly on the ‘band wagon’ for non-human rights and basic humane needs for non-humans, Ms Umbridge is being a decidedly unhelpful poison in his ear, but I am sure I can at least sway some of the Minister’s mind to see what I wish him too.”

“The new Bill I am posing should help yours through faster.” Myron told the blonde as Richard wandered off, bored like a child of the talk of politics and Aneirin excused himself to speak to his sons, who it seemed were having a disagreement.

“I am certain that together we can at least get small amounts of freedom for non-humans, though I am unsure whether it will extend to ‘dark and dangerous creatures’, the Minister is particularly afraid of werewolves, which is why the current laws are so slated against them. I doubt that the thought of Drackens being considered in this Bill has crossed the Minister’s mind.”

“I think it’s time for a new Minister.” Myron stated with a sly smirk.

“I believe you are correct on that matter.” Lucius agreed as he watched his son embrace Harry and the child, Braiden his mind supplied, the smile on his son’s face was an expression he had never seen before and it saddened him that Draco’s life had been far from the perfect image the family portrayed to those outside of their house. He wasn’t sure how far the truce with Potter went, but he vowed that he would at the very least try to get on better with them all as he watched Draco let out a deep, belly laugh at something Harry had said, for Draco’s sake. This was all for Draco, his baby dragon.

\---------------------------------------------------------- X


	7. Altercation

Altercation

Maximilius laughed happily as he joked with his Father, Richard. He pushed his recent disagreement with Harry out of his mind. Nasta had ordered both him and Draco to be more tolerant of Harry’s werewolf friend, he didn’t like it. He didn’t like that there was a diseased creature near his son, but what Harry had said was true, he couldn’t have it both ways, he needed to trust that Harry knew this man and knew he wouldn’t harm their newborn baby. He couldn’t ask Harry to go on his word about his Mother and not show Harry the same amount of trust back, it didn’t work like that and he knew it, no matter how much he didn’t like it.  
He sneaked a peek at Harry and the werewo…Remus, his mind automatically corrected. The werewolf was holding Braiden tightly and his Dracken side lurched to the forefront, demanding that he snap the thing’s neck like a twig for daring to touch a baby Dracken, his baby Dracken, but he calmed himself, helped with his Dad’s hand on his arm and the softly asked ‘Are you alright Max?’

“Yeah, fine.” He answered as he turned back to face his Dad, who looked so worried for him. He grinned and cracked a joke that had his Dad laughing again, wiping that look of worry from his face.

A loud screech had everyone looking to Amelle, who had dived onto Harry’s back and was repeatedly hitting his head into the ground.  
Max saw red and he charged at the woman, even as Harry ripped Amelle’s hair with both of his hands, but Aneirin got there first.

“Get her off of Harry!” Draco yelled.

“She’s going to hurt him!” Blaise snarled.

“Get her Harry! Take out her bitchy tongue!” Alayla cheered.

“Alayla!” Kimberly said shocked, holding a hand to her heart.

Aneirin got to Harry first and went to separate them when Harry twisted to the side and sunk his fangs deeply into his arm. He let out a yell and backed away, pulling his shirt over his head with one hand and pressing it tightly to his arm, waiting for it to stop bleeding.  
Max watched in stunned disbelief as Harry kicked Amelle off of his body, straddled her waist, pulled her head up by her hair and threw a powerful punch directly at her face. He winced as he heard the bone crack and saw the burst of blood.   
He rushed forward and seized Harry from behind, pulling him away from Amelle, but was dismayed to see Harry’s hands wound tight in Amelle’s hair, dragging her head with them as he pulled.  
Harry screamed then, pain filled and it tore at something within him as Nasta wrapped an arm each around an out of control Blaise and Draco, who would attack Amelle and likely kill her before they could stop them. Hearing Harry screaming in pain hurt him and he ached to attack his sister-in-law for making Harry scream like that.  
He felt air passing his leg and looked down just in time to see Harry’s pulled back leg go flying into Amelle’s thigh. If this situation wasn’t so serious he’d be proud of Harry for the way he fought. But the situation was serious; if they weren’t stopped and separated then they could kill one another so very easily, this situation needed to be controlled.  
He slipped his hand into Harry’s hair and closed it into a fist. He didn’t want to punish Harry, but he needed for him to stop, they both needed to stop and if Harry had to be punished for that then he’d do it, he would rather punish Harry than have him killed by his uppity, snobbish, bitchy sister-in-law.

“Let go of her Harry.” He demanded, not showing any weakness, even though he wanted to plead with his submissive to let her go, pleading would do him no good when Harry was this enraged, he needed to be more dominant than Harry in this situation if he was even going to get through to him.

His two Dads were on either side of where Harry and Amelle were joined, they were gently trying to extract Harry’s fingers from Amelle’s hair, even as he and Caesar held around their mate’s waists, trying to demand them to stand down. Aneirin was back and was crouched on the floor trying to deflect the sharp claws that kept trying to sink into Harry’s tender belly and Harry’s powerful kicks which were bruising Amelle’s legs badly.  
As Amelle sunk claws into Harry yet again in an attack that Aneirin couldn’t deflect, as the scent of blood filled his senses, Max became fearful. How much blood had Harry lost? How cut up was he? How long did he have before he died from blood loss?

“Harry, let go!” He demanded again, but his voice wavered, his fear showing through.

He tightened his hand in Harry’s hair and pulled his head back, bending Harry’s neck at an angle. Harry needed to be seen to immediately. He was going to die.  
Harry hissed at him and outright defied him by winding Amelle’s hair around his wrists, yanking her with such a force she came off of her feet. Max held Harry up, hoping that they could separate them now that Amelle was distracted by her fall, but he was dismayed to see Harry still holding on strongly to Amelle’s hair, forcing her head from the ground as her body lay splayed, scrambling to get to her knees as the pain in her scalp worsened.

“Let go Harry!” Nasta yelled over all the noise. Max felt the order in those words and felt sure that Harry would obey, but Harry did no such thing.

“Get him off!” Amelle screeched thickly in pain from her broken nose. Max felt his rage hike up a level at her underhand tactics, the tears in her voice were absent from her face. “Caesar! Caesar get him off me! Please!” 

Max was frozen in shock as Caesar immediately let go of his mate, pulled back his fist and punched Harry’s mouth. He looked at his horrified brother, his fist still raised in the stance he had hit Harry with, before his gaze went to the ground, to his tiny submissive mate, lying on the grass with blood pouring from his mouth, stunned from the punch, numb from the force of it. Caesar was a Dracken; he could have broken Harry’s neck with a punch like that.  
He roared as the rage encompassed his entire body and mind. He tackled his still frozen brother and started throwing punches at him, wanting to avenge Harry, he wanted to hurt the one who had hurt his submissive, he couldn’t hit Amelle because not only was she a woman, she was a submissive, but he could hurt Caesar. Caesar who was Amelle’s dominant and Husband, Caesar who had just crossed the line, Caesar who had broken the unspoken rule of brotherhood by punching Harry, his submissive mate and future Husband.  
Caesar started fighting back after a vicious punch to the chin. They were both shoving at one another, trying to gain the upper hand, but Max was bigger, heavier and stronger than his little brother, so pinned him to the grass easily as he repeatedly hit Caesar for his transgression against him and Harry.  
Their Dads were there then, shouting and pulling, but Max was furious with Caesar for punching Harry. It was against the law for a dominant to hit a submissive. It hurt worse knowing that it was his own brother who had injured his mate.

“Stop it Max!” Richard begged his son; he was not above pleading with his son to stop.

“Maximilius!” Myron’s voice boomed so deeply it reverberated within his lungs. “Remember that your brother is not as strong as you are, you could kill him. You will only regret it later, you will come to loath yourself if you killed Caesar. Leave him be.”

“He hit Harry! Harry has already been hit too many times in his life! With Malfoy hitting him a few hours ago, Amelle tearing him up, now my own brother punches him! He doesn’t deserve it! He’s been hit several times today already!”

Max hissed the last out and clenched Caesar’s arms with his claws, his brother cried out and it was that small whine of pain that brought Max back into himself. He remembered another instance when he had heard that little whine of pain.  
He had been thirteen and he was so strong, so powerful and had just started developing muscle definition. Caesar was just eleven and was still very slender and androgynous, their parents had still believed he would be a male submissive and had taught Myron to be very careful with his little brother because even though he was a boy like he was, he wasn’t built the same as he was, that Caesar could be hurt very easily by him.   
He remembered being so very protective of his four younger siblings, he remembered shepherding them away from dangers, like the river at the very bottom of the garden; he remembered shadowing them as they played, exerting so much control as he played with them so he didn’t hurt them.  
But there had been four of them and only one of him. He had been seeing to Talia, who had fallen over and skinned her knee. He had taken his eyes off of Caesar for a moment, the next he knew was that stomach clenching whine of agony. He had turned around and saw Caesar on the floor holding his leg. The jagged end of his shin bone was visible through his skin. He had fallen over and his leg had gotten caught in a tree root. The bone had just snapped under the pressure of Caesar’s body falling whilst his ankle had been trapped and his shin had bent over the tree’s unyielding roots.  
He had ordered Julinda to get their parents as he rushed to Caesar and scooped him up, ordering Caesar not to look at his leg. Of course he hadn’t listened and had looked. The tears came then, thick and fast as Caesar started sobbing and crying, screaming in agony. Max had hoped to never hear that sound again, he had sworn to himself that he would never let anything happen to Caesar to cause him to make that sound again and here he was eighteen years later, the cause of that whine of pain.  
He let go of Caesar like he had been burnt and stood up on shaky legs, bile burning the back of his throat as he looked at what he had done to his little brother.

“Oh Caesar. I’m so sorry!” Max whispered as he fell back to his knees and embraced his brother.

Max felt his heart lift when Caesar hugged him back, laying his face next to his own.

“No I’m sorry. I should never have hit Harry; I let my Dracken side take over for just a moment when I heard Amelle beg for me to help her. I never meant to hit Harry. I’d never want to hurt him and not just because he’s your mate, or because he’s a submissive. I like Harry, he’s amazing, brilliant. I like him a lot Max and I consider him a friend, I just hope he can forgive me for this.”

“Do I need to pull the both of you over my knee?” Myron asked seriously and watched with a slightly sadistic glee as both of his grown sons went stark white at the, not completely empty, threat.

Max had many memories of being pulled over his Father’s knee, that huge hand leaving his bottom stinging for hours as he sniffled away, vowing to never do what misdemeanour he had committed ever again. His Father would always leave them to think about what they had done for an hour or two with their burning bottoms before he would find them again and hold them in the very lap they had been bent over, cuddling them and reassuring them that he still loved them very much, but that their behaviour would not be tolerated and if they behaved in the same way again then they would receive an additional swat to the standard three they already received for a first time offence.  
Both he and Caesar shook their heads as Richard laughed at their horrified faces at being threatened with a spanking in front of everyone, including their mates.

“I think they’ve learnt their lesson love.” Richard grinned at Myron. “They’ve made up and I’m sure this was a onetime thing.”

Myron nodded his head sharply, before flicking it to one side to dismiss them. “Shoo the both of you, your mates need you.” 

Max turned and jogged to Harry, listening as Amelle immediately started on Caesar. He calmed himself as he heard what she was screaming at his brother and instead brushed his fingers in the drying patch of blood clinging to Harry’s split lip.   
Caesar dragged Amelle into the house and presumably through the floo to their parent’s house where they were staying and Max hoped that his brother finally stopped being her doormat and realised that he had more power than he realised. He looked back to Harry’s broken and still sluggishly bleeding body. Amelle’s claw marks weren’t healing. He longed to wipe away all of Harry’s cuts, bruises, aches and pains. He swore that he would never, ever again let Harry get this hurt. He had been so frightened as he tried desperately to split Harry’s delicate, tender belly from Amelle’s sharp claws, so terrified that Amelle would take away Harry’s life. That she would take away his lover, his son’s Mother. Never again he promised as he flanked Nasta who moved to take a sleeping Harry to the bedroom, grabbing his dragon hide case on the way to the bedroom to fix up what he could with his potions. Never again would he let Harry get into such a dangerous situation where he could be killed. Never again.

\---------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t forget that you can join me on Facebook under the name StarLight Mass! I’m not a creepy stalker I swear, I just like talking to real people who know what I’m on about when I mention Drackens and people to bounce ideas and scenes off of, also you get information that no one else does and I even post sneak peeks of the upcoming chapters *wink wink.
> 
> http://www.facebook.com/starlight.mass
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed this chapter,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	8. Quality Time: Harry and Blaise

Quality Time – Harry and Blaise

Harry was slightly nervous as he was pushed into Blaise’s waiting arms by an amused Max who held Braiden securely with one arm. Draco was going to enjoy some quiet time with his current novel in the living room whilst Nasta went to visit his friends at the Dragon reserve he worked at.  
They had been told that it was essential to spend time with each other separately to ensure a healthy, long lasting relationship, so Harry was going to spend some quality time with Blaise.  
They slipped their shoes on under Max’s stern, mother hen gaze and went out of the back door and into the orchard holding hands, where they slipped their shoes and socks off and left them beside a tree to walk barefoot on the soft, dry grass.   
It felt amazing to Harry, the feel of the grass under his feet as he and Blaise basked in the sunlight, both of their body scales out and on show, absorbing the sunlight and warming their skin further. Much more than when they had been human as the scales became almost too hot to touch under the direct sunlight, but Harry barely noticed, he loved the way the sun was blazing down on him, being absorbed by his scales and keeping him warm.  
They walked hand in hand, weaving around the trees, laughing and talking about nothing of importance, sharing a few light, chaste kisses and a couple of long, steamy snogs, Blaise pressing him up hard against a nearby, convenient, tree trunk.   
They spoke at length about their son Braiden, how he had developed, how he was growing every single day, debating on what colour his eyes would turn, the cute noise he had made that morning, the full bottle of milk he had drank entirely the other day.   
It was wonderful to not have to do anything but talk and wander around at their leisure, Braiden was taken care of, the others were all occupied, it was just them and the sun and the grass between the trees of the orchard and Harry loved it.  
He moved into Blaise and pressed against his mate’s body. Harry knew Blaise’s body well. Blaise had been his first. His first of many things. His first mate, his first boyfriend, his first lover, his first true love, it was only reasonable that Blaise be his first child’s Father as well.

“Ti amo, Harry.” Blaise whispered to him.

Those words had become some of his most very favourite words and Harry delighted in saying them back, sharing a little piece that made up Blaise, back with his mate.  
Blaise chuckled against his ear and teasingly licked the shell of his ear.

“You are becoming too good at this.” He complained. “Je t'aime.” 

“Is that Italian too?” Harry asked, cocking his head to the side.

“It’s French, mon coeur.” Blaise said with an indulgent smile. “I’m half French as well as part Italian. French is my Mother language, English came next with the help of Draco and when I learnt that my Father had been Italian, I forced myself to learn the language he had spoken.”

“Why do you always revert to Italian when you’re angry if French is your Mother language?” Harry asked curiously.

Blaise shrugged elegantly. “Perhaps it is because I willed myself to learn it so hard when I was younger that it imprinted on my mind. I wanted my Father’s family to love me, to accept me, so I made myself learn Italian, to prove to them that I was willing to make the first steps in communicating with them. I forced Italian down my own throat, so perhaps it just comes to mind first when I’m reduced to anger. Italian is really the only thing I have to remember my Father diletto, his language, a few photographs and Mother’s memories of him. When I go home, I speak French without even thinking about it because my Mother and Josiah do. I speak English in school and when I am with you and the others, where does that leave time to speak Italian, but when I’m angry?”

“You shouldn’t be reduced to have to speak Italian only when you’re angry.” Harry despaired. “It was your Father’s language, you should speak it freely.”

“I do Harry, don’t forget that Nasta knows more languages than Draco knows grooming charms. He and I have lengthy discussions in English, Italian and French. He enjoys having someone to speak a different language too, though I think he is sorely missing his Parseltongue lessons.”

Blaise winked and Harry chuckled as he remembered how that lesson had ended.

“He did so well in those lessons. I’ll ask him and see if he wants to learn a bit more.”

Blaise wrapped an arm around him and led him to the other side of the orchard where the trees opened up to show an endless, bright green field of grass down a steep slope that they were standing on. It was studded on the edges with wild flowers and in the very distance there were soft, sloping hills. There wasn’t a house in sight.

“This would be a perfect place for a picnic with the kids when they’re older. I can see them running around and playing in the field as we sit on a soft blanket in the very middle watching them. Except Max. Max would be rolling around with the rest of them.” Harry whispered his fantasy out loud.

Blaise chucked and held him tighter, turning them to face one another so that their chests and bellies were pressed together.

“Perhaps one day your dream will come true Prezioso. Max need not sell his house. Even if we upgrade to fit all of our beautiful children, perhaps we could keep this house for sentimental reasons. Then when we have pushed our children to their grandparents, you and I, Draco, Max and Nasta could come back here for a bit of alone time.”

Blaise wiggled his eyebrows and Harry laughed happily.

“Of course we could also bring the children here and unleash them on the beautiful nature around us. That field looks big enough to hold sixty children comfortably.”

“Sixty! Blaise we have one, week old baby.” Harry burst out.

“We might one day have sixty.” Blaise said nibbling along his neck, sensually licking and softly sucking at it to leave a light mark that would be gone within a day or two. 

“You really wouldn’t mind sixty children?” Harry demanded.

“No. It would be difficult to begin with, but as our first children get older and more mature and finally grow up and leave our home to begin their own lives it would get easier. We wouldn’t be looking after sixty toddlers all at once.”

“When we get Grandchildren we might.” Harry warned darkly.

Blaise chuckled and held him to his body as they stood there in the bright sun, looking out into nothing but green grass and blue sky, thinking about their family, and the one they could have when they were older.

\------------------------------------------------------------------ X


	9. Peek-a-Boo

Peek-a-Boo – Max and Braiden

Max saw Blaise and Harry out the back door, his arm curled up over Braiden’s body, holding the little baby securely.  
He rolled his eyes as he saw both Harry and Blaise remove their shoes and socks at the edge of the orchard, looking around like guilty school children, giggling like little girls. Did they honestly think he wouldn’t see them? 

“Your Mother and Father are crazy, Braiden baby, it’s a good thing you have me or you’d be screwed seven ways to Sunday.” Max told the baby that had been placed in his sole care.

Max sat at his kitchen table and held Braiden between his hands, making sure the fingers of his left hand supported the week old baby’s head and neck, tilting him backwards ever so slightly to make sure his head didn’t flop to either side.

“You are such a good looking boy, though with a Mum and Dad like yours it’s not surprising that you’ll grow up to be a stunner.”

Max sighed and nuzzled the baby’s belly with his nose and lips, blowing raspberries that made Braiden squirm and make little, sweet noises.  
Max yawned and cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders. 

“I could do with a nap, I don’t know about you Braiden, but you waking us all up screaming for food every four hours takes its toll after a while. You had better grow out of it soon.” 

Max hefted himself up and carried the baby into the living room. Draco was in the second, more intimate living room with his book so that he wouldn’t be disturbed. He wanted to finish his book today so that he could move onto the sequel.  
Max collapsed onto the settee and placed Braiden in front of his face. He peppered his little face with kisses and blew a raspberry on his cheek. The little baby made the sweet little noise, like he was startled or surprised, once again and it made Max smile.

“I love you so much Braiden. I’m never letting you go. You’re as much my son as any other child I have. You’re so precious to me, irreplaceable and better than any baby in the world.” Max murmured softly.

Braiden made a soft exclamation and blinked baby blue eyes at him, a little fist flinging outwards into open air. Max caught the little hand and pressed a kiss to it, tucking it back into the blanket swaddled around Braiden.

“You must be boiling in this blanket.” Max said as he stripped off his tee shirt, taking the swaddling blanket from around Braiden whilst he was at it.

Braiden’s arms moved jerkily as they were unwrapped from his body and Max smiled indulgently. It was hard to believe that he had his first child at thirty-one yet he had Uncles that were in their sixties who had yet to even find a mate. He felt so blessed and lucky, when he thought about it too much, about Harry and even Nasta, Draco and Blaise, he felt giddy.

“Oh I love you so much!” He repeated, pulling Braiden up to his face and pressing his lips to Braiden’s cheek, keeping them there and feeling the peachy softness under his lips.

He placed Braiden into his lap, making sure his knees were higher than his hips so Braiden’s head above his bottom and was elevated towards him. He pulled over the box of baby things that Harry usually kept in the bathroom and opened it. He held Braiden’s tiny, tiny hands between his fingers and bent down to nibble those weeny nails down. Harry was terrified to use the baby nail clippers in case he cut too much nail off and had instead, under the advice of a Healer he had called at six in the morning, taken to nibbling them when they got long enough to hurt Braiden and leave scratches on his face and had ordered the rest of them to do the same whether they were afraid of the nail clippers or not.  
Max made sure they were as even as he could get them before using the tiny nail file to smoothen them out before replacing the scratch mitts over little hands.  
Next he pulled out a tiny, soft bristled hair brush and neatened out the black tufts of downy hair that covered Braiden’s head. It was soft and smooth, jet black and so far they couldn’t tell if it was Harry’s hair or Blaise’s. It gave Draco sleepless nights.  
Max chuckled and packed away the brush once all of Braiden’s hair was neat again before kissing him again. And again. He couldn’t stop touching and kissing his son and he couldn’t wait until the entire house was filled with children for him to love and feed, but maybe not for a while yet. Braiden was a very good baby, slept when he was meant to, woke up with minimal fuss for feeds like clockwork, the only thing that Braiden wasn’t good with was the bath. He hated baths and screamed his little lungs out as soon as the water touched him. But Max could deal with a bit of fussiness when it came to bath time because Braiden was so good with everything else, but he was fearful that if they had another child so close to Braiden that it would not only disturb Braiden’s established pattern, but that the new baby might not be as good or laid back as Braiden. What if the new baby woke every two hours for a feed? What if the new baby got colic or didn’t like sleeping? What if the new baby cried every hour of every day? No they were better off with just Braiden for now, at least for a little while.  
Max placed his hands over his eyes and rubbed hard to get rid of the grittiness and Braiden squirmed on his lap. He looked at his son quickly and Braiden’s blue eyes were pinned to him, flitting from his eyes, to his mouth, to his ears, to his nose and then back to his eyes.

“You like playing peek-a-boo do you?” Max asked with a grin as he covered his eyes again. Braiden squirmed again. “Peep-o!” Max cried out softly as he uncovered his eyes and watched as Braiden’s gaze once again flitted all over his face.

Max continued this game until Braiden yawned widely, his little mouth stretching open and puckering showing the vast, wet red cavern behind with soft pink gums that would soon be growing teeth. Max wasn’t looking forward to teething.  
Max gripped those tiny hands as they spread themselves out, the fingers spreading as wide as possible as he yawned, before clenching as his body relaxed once more.

“I think you have the right of it love. I think it’s way past nap time. I just hope that when you’re two you enjoy your naps just as much as you do now!” 

Max pulled Braiden up onto his chest and shoved a pillow under his back so he could recline comfortably without dislodging Braiden. He fell asleep quickly, Braiden clutched to his chest already sleeping.  
Nasta flooed home from the Dragon reserve an hour later and smiled at the sight that greeted him on the settee. He kissed Max’s sleep slack lips and kissed Braiden’s little head before he went in search of the other three mates, leaving his two fast asleep loves on the settee in peace and quiet to finish their nap.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------- X


	10. A Shoulder to Lean On

A Shoulder to Lean On - Draco and Nasta

When he caught sight of Draco’s face, he couldn’t bear it. It broke his heart to see that handsome face scrunched up in upset. Draco tried to hide it, but little signs gave him away. The crease around his eyes, the sucked in bottom lip, the slight quiver to his chin and the sheen of glittering tears at the corner of his eyes.  
Nasta glared at the elder Malfoy and subtly moved to take Draco away from the tense situation for a moment, enough to give his blonde lover some time to regain control of himself.

“Draco.” He said softly. “Come with me a moment.”

He led Draco into the semi-privacy of the orchard; they would only be seen if one of the guests stood at the right angle and was actually looking for them, but then all the guests were family members, mostly of Max’s, but none of them would say a word about them.

“Your Father shouldn’t say those things about you.” 

“He can say what he wants, he always has.”

“If that were true then he’d be dead. Everyone knows what he did to keep you and your Mother safe Draco, if he had just said what he wanted then Voldemort would have killed him.”

“What does that have to do with anything?!” Draco hissed.

“It shows that your Father is fully capable of holding his tongue when he wants to. He means to upset you and Harry. He wants to hurt you and he should be big enough to hold that inside of himself. He is your Father; no Father should say such things to their sons.”

“Harry has seen him at his worst, at his lowest, at his most vile and evil, but he has never seen my Father at his best.” Draco confided. “Father cannot forget what he’s done and he will never forget that it was Harry who saved him from prison. If Harry hadn’t forced the Ministry to actually hold full accountable trials then no one would have even known my Father was blackmailed by the Dark Lord to do his bidding.”

“He doesn’t like being indebted to Harry.” Nasta summarised softly.

“Our entire family owes Harry life debts.” Draco confided.

“That isn’t Harry’s fault. He is a loving, decent person, of course he was going to suggest, demand really, that everyone gets a fair trial after what happened to his Godfather.”

“I’m not saying that it’s Harry’s fault!” Draco argued. “I’m thankful, grateful that he saved my family.”

“But your Father saved your family all throughout the dark years and it was Harry who got the credit because he saved them in the end.”

“My Father is known for being rational in all things, but I’m afraid that when it comes to Harry he loses the ability to think and speak properly. He never wanted Harry dead, he was in the same school year as me, there is a month between us, I heard him telling Mother that every time the Dark Lord spoke of killing Harry that he couldn’t help picturing me in his stead. It has stayed his hand a few times when the opportunity has risen to strike Harry and kill him.”

“It was love for his son that stayed his hand Draco. He loves you. I can see it in his eyes, the way he moves, the way he touches you. He loves you but he is head strong and proud and he doesn’t know anyone here.”

“He doesn’t like showing his true self in front of strangers.”

“I can understand that Draco. I can. He’s lived through two wars and through the both of them he was close to a madman who was killing off babies, every one you met could mean your death. Husbands killed wives, Mothers killed children, the little old woman down the street slaughtered the neighbourhood. I know what it was like; I’ve lived through them too. I’m thirty-seven Draco. I was born in nineteen-sixty, I was ten when the war started picking up, I had to leave my family and go to school at eleven like everyone else, not knowing if the next owl would bring news of my Father’s death, or my sister’s or my brother’s. I was constantly afraid.”

“I didn’t realise you were old enough to have seen the first rising.” Draco mumbled.

“I am thirty-seven Draco, but it doesn’t matter. People couldn’t trust anyone back then, I didn’t speak to any of my classmates, I avoided everyone. I practised warding and alarm spells to place around my bed every night, just in case. No one trusted anyone, to show your true self was to invite death, your Father had to do this twice, he had to become a different person to stay alive and to protect his family, no one blames him for doing it Draco, everyone here understands.”

“I just want him to stop hating Harry. I want him to see the wonderful person Harry truly is, I want him to see Harry as I see him.”

Nasta pulled Draco into his arms and was surprised that the blonde allowed it, even pillowing his head on his chest, his tears darkening the light grey shirt he was wearing. He put his arms around Draco’s back and held him as the blonde cried silently, he felt that this was a real bonding moment between the both of them and hopefully Draco had leant today that he could come to him with anything, that he could trust him, that he knew Nasta would always love him and would always be there to hold him if everything got to be too much. Nasta loved Draco just as much as he loved Harry. Just as much as Max and Blaise. He loved all of them and he was determined to beat that into their skulls if he had to.

“Thank you.” Draco muttered as he rubbed away the tears, standing up straight to show that his cheeks had flushed pink and his eyes had gone red. “I look hideous.”

Nasta chuckled and pulled Draco forward into a loving kiss. “You look just as gorgeous as you did this morning.” 

Nasta rubbed away the lingering traces of tears on Draco’s cheeks as the blonde went even pinker in the cheeks before kissing one of them lightly and heading back into the garden. He felt that he and Draco had had a real moment in the orchard and he wasn’t likely to forget it anytime soon.  
Draco followed him into the garden and went to the table to get himself a cup of tea, pouring two cups and handing one to his Mother.

“Where is Harry?” He asked.

“Inside the house with your Father.” Narcissa answered a bit fretfully, trying her hardest not to show her worry.

Draco swallowed the mouthful of too hot tea and looked at the house in fear. If his Father and Harry couldn’t work things out, where did that leave him?

\--------------------------------------------------------------- X


	11. In at the Deep End

In at the Deep End – Draco and Braiden

Draco swallowed lightly as he was handed the baby as Nasta rushed Harry out of the kitchen and into the fireplace. The younger boy had wanted to go and visit the Weasleys and Nasta was escorting him as he wouldn’t let Harry go anywhere on his own now that he was pregnant for the second time and definitely not through the floo network alone.  
Blaise had gone to see his Mother and Max had been called in urgently to work. It was just him on his own, with the baby.   
Draco looked down as he awkwardly held Braiden in his arms. He sat down quickly in case he dropped him and looked wide eyed around the room. The house was silent and empty save for him and the baby and he let out a shuddering breath. If anything at all happened to Braiden he’d be killed. It wasn’t a debate, if anything happened to Braiden the only question would be who killed him first, Harry or Blaise.  
He didn’t know what he was doing or how to look after the baby he had been left with. Oh why couldn’t Harry or Blaise have taken the baby with them?  
Those baby blue eyes blinked open and a little wail came from that pink mouth. Draco’s heart about stopped.

“No, please no! Don’t cry, please! I’ll give you anything you want, anything!” Draco begged as he rocked the baby clumsily and shushed him to no effect.

Braiden started full out crying and Draco’s mind went blank. What did he do? He bounced and rocked and stood up and paced as he had seen Max do on occasion. Max had so many relatives, so many baby cousins, surely he had babysat once or twice, surely he had known what he was doing? But it wasn’t working for him as Braiden started crying at an ear splitting pitch.

“Please Braiden!” Draco begged as he held the baby tighter and stroked a flushed, tear stained cheek. “You can’t be hungry; you’ve only just been fed!”

Surprisingly, Draco felt tears burn at the corners of his eyes as Braiden continued crying. He had never felt so useless before as the baby he had come to love as his own screamed and thrashed in his arms for a reason he couldn’t understand.  
Tears fell smoothly down his cheeks as Braiden continued crying in his arms.

“You can’t hate me that much.” Draco begged. “I know I’ve never fed you or held you for very long or even changed you, but I do love you, I swear I’ll do more for you, just please stop crying love.”

Braiden made a strange noise and started crying so hard he made no noise at all and Draco was so worried he contemplated flooing over to his Mother for help when Braiden suddenly threw up. Draco quickly turned him onto his stomach and patted his back to get the vomit out of Braiden’s mouth. Draco used his finger to get any lingering vomit out and grimaced, but he was far too worried to complain or whine about it as he patted Braiden’s back before waving his wand to vanish the vomit.   
He carried the baby carefully up the stairs and stripped him of his vomit stained clothing and shoved them into the baby basket that Harry used for Braiden’s dirty clothes. It was then that Draco realised that Braiden’s nappy was swollen.   
He peeled the sticky ties on the nappy and almost fearfully opened it. Thankfully Braiden was only wet and he felt such a fool for not realising that if the baby was crying and didn’t need food then he likely needed a change of nappy.  
Braiden hiccupped and Draco looked at him quickly to see if anything else was going to come out of his mouth, but when it didn’t and Braiden was calming down, little fist stuck in a toothless, sucking mouth, Draco felt such relief. He awkwardly used a wipe to cleanse his son’s bum, legs, groin, back and stomach, just in case. He used the nappy rash cream, again just in case and used the talcum powder before putting his, now happy, baby back into a nappy and putting him into a clean bodysuit and a new outfit.  
Draco plucked him up and carried him to the bed, where he laid against it and held Braiden on his chest.

“I love you so much and you’re not even mine.” Draco murmured. “But I love you just as much as if you were mine. I love your Mother, I love your Father and the other two as well I suppose.”

Draco smiled to himself. “I love them and I love you and I’m never going to leave you, I swear it. No matter how hard life gets, I will always be here for you and for Harry and the others. I'm through being a little boy, I want to be a man now and you’re going to help me.”

Braiden looked at him through sleepy bluish-purple eyes and Draco smiled.

“Your Grandmother loves you Braiden, she sent me a very long letter about how cute and sweet you are and told me all of the toys and clothes she was going to buy you and that she was going to work on your Grandfather. He’ll come around love. I know he will, you’re too adorable to hate and your Grandfather isn’t as hard as he likes to portray, he’s had a culture shock and once it sinks in that everything has evened out and isn’t going to be changing again soon, he’ll come around. He loves me and I love him, but I also love you and your Mother and Fathers, if your Grandfather loves me as much as he says he does then he will come around. I swear it.”

Draco kissed Braiden’s cheek and wrapped arms around the baby as he felt a yawn take over. 

“I suppose a little nap won’t hurt, I don’t want to let you go just yet, besides you’d wake up the dead if you cried right next to their ear.”

Draco made himself comfortable against the pillows and rested his chin gently on Braiden’s head, his fingers lightly combing through the soft strands of downy hair. He sent up a silent prayer, as he had done every night since even before Braiden had been born, that he never got Harry’s hair.  
Harry and Nasta found him an hour later and they both smiled and shared a light kiss, before Harry covered both Draco and Braiden lightly with a cotton blanket and headed back downstairs with Nasta, leaving Draco and Braiden to their bonding.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------ X


	12. His Voice

His Voice - Harry and Max

Harry kissed Braiden’s little cheek as he handed him off to Blaise, who was again being a very possessive Daddy and hissing when any one tried to get near a three day old Braiden.  
Nasta had had a house visit from one of his fellow Dragon handlers, who had given him the biggest stack of parchment Harry had ever seen. Nasta had sighed and sat down at the kitchen table to do his paperwork for the Welsh Dragon Reserve. Draco had gone home to visit his parents for the morning, which left Harry and Max to spend some quality time together.  
Harry had dragged Max into the living room, shoved him onto the settee and pushed the book they were reading together into his hands before snuggling into his biggest mate’s side and settling down to listen to Max reading.  
Harry loved Max’s reading voice. Harry loved how Max used different tones and inflected feeling and emotion using his voice. He adored being snuggled into Max’s side, resting against him. His head raising and falling with each one of Max’s strong, deep breaths, feeling safe and happy with a large arm wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him tighter into Max’s body.  
He couldn’t say what the book was even about, he forgot the words as soon as he heard them as they went in one ear and out the other, he just loved watching Max’s mouth move as he spoke, his soothing voice as he read aloud, his body raising and falling slowly and evenly. It lulled him into a peaceful place and it was no wonder that he always fell asleep on Max’s chest.   
Harry blinked open his eyes and listened as the soft sleeping noises came to his ears. He had fallen asleep on Max again and it seemed that Max had fallen asleep with him. Nasta was in the room, his legs tucked up under his body as he rested his head on his hand and his elbow on the arm of the settee he was sat on.

“You finished your paperwork?” Harry asked, his voice sleep roughened.

Nasta just nodded. 

“Why don’t you go to bed, you look knackered.” Harry coached.

“I was debating on carrying you and then Max to bed first.” Nasta replied quietly.

“You’ll never get Max up the stairs.” Harry said with a smile. “Not unless you carry him lengthways down your body and he’s too tall for that.”

“Hence my dilemma.”

“Just leave us here, we’ll be up later.” Harry said. “It won’t hurt us to sleep on the settee for a little while longer.”

Nasta smiled and eased himself up. He kissed him before kissing Max and heading up the stairs to bed. Harry pillowed himself back on Max and wondered what the time was if Nasta was going to bed. Harry played with the skin on Max’s hip, pushing his fingers under the shirt he was wearing to feel and caress Max. His mate made a soft sound and turned around, still asleep.  
Harry grinned as he saw the outline of Max pressed against the front of his jeans, hard and ready. He stroked soft fingertips over the bulge and Max groaned deeply in his sleep and his hips canted towards Harry’s hand unconsciously.   
Harry continued to stroke, undoing Max’s jeans carefully so that he didn’t wake him up and parting the fabric.  
Harry touched softly and carefully, never exerting too much pressure and soon Max was moving his hips slowly into his hand, his face contorting into confusion as sleep slipped away from him as his pleasure grew.  
Harry slipped his hand gently under the elasticated waistband of Max’s boxers and touched burning skin, stroking more firmly and adding a slight pressure, squeezing solid flesh under silky skin, caressing the head of Max gently as soft noises slipped from that strong throat.  
Blue, blue eyes snapped open and Max grunted as his orgasm took over him and his boxer shorts soaked up his release. Harry caressed the last few drops of liquid from Max before removing his covered hand and grinned as Max looked at him through wide, lust blown eyes.

“You little demon.” Max growled as he threw his head over the back of the settee, relearning how to breathe.

“You enjoyed it and I still am.” Harry teased as he waited for Max to look at him curiously before licking at the white liquid that was clinging to the tips of his fingers.

“Oh hell.” Max cursed as he ripped Harry forward and onto his lap, smashing their mouths together in a violent kiss full of teeth and tongue.

Harry felt the hardness under his groin and he rolled his hips into it and Max groaned deeply, pushing back against him.

“We can’t do this, you’ve only just had Braiden, you’re not ready.” Max protested weakly.

Harry took Max’s hand and pressed it against himself. “I think I am ready love. My body says it’s ready for you, I want you, I’m ready for you. Please Max. The others don’t have to know, they’re all asleep in bed.”

“They’ll find out.” Max hissed gruffly, his mouth protesting, but his hands and body encouraging by caressing and stroking him, stripping off Harry’s shirt and unbuttoning his trousers.

“Let them. I’ll tell them I seduced you.”

That made Max laugh and he relented, kissing Harry ferociously. Hands tore at clothes and buttons until Harry broke apart a kiss for some air and he realised he and Max were naked and hard and pressed against one another intimately.

“I want you so badly.” Harry gasped.

“I want you just as badly.” Max growled, bucked into his stomach.

“You can have me!” Harry groaned, pushing his hips forward into Max.

Max made a primal, deep noise and clenched Harry’s bum cheeks hard, squeezing them as he lifted Harry up before penetrating him with no more than a palm full of his own saliva.  
It made him burn, turned his blood hot and the angle arched his back until his belly was touching Max’s, but his shoulders were facing the ceiling, one large hand supporting his spine as the other one cradled his head as Max pushed into him slowly and gently, but picking up pace and making Harry’s whole body twitch and convulse as he rolled his hips to fuck himself on Max, who unbent his spine and pulled him forward into a kiss that broke his bottom lip, the blood between them pulling a small mew from Harry’s throat as he listened to Max’s voice rumbling deep in his throat with every thrust.

“Oh…oh!” Harry exclaimed as he felt the all too familiar burn in his abdomen. “Max! Max! Maxie please! Please Max! Please…please…MAX!”

Harry screamed Max’s name for the whole house to hear, had they not had silencing charms already in place, until he thought his throat would tear as his body quivered and convulsed with the force of his orgasm, making small, odd noises as Max’s orgasm hit him and a white wash of fluid filled him as Max roared and almost crushed him into his body as his solid muscles tensed and tautened until he was like warm stone.  
Harry stayed curled up as the afterglow brought a smile to his face and a pleasant ache deep in his body. He loved sex with his mates, no matter if they were fucking or making love, somewhere in between or just in a complete mess together.  
He loved Max’s voice after sex, as his biggest mate asking him if he was alright in such a deep, gruff voice, Harry almost went hard again. Almost.  
Harry just loved Max, like he loved all of his mates, but they all had their qualities and flaws, they all had their quirks and Harry loved them for it, as he hoped they loved him for his habits and flaws, but the one thing he absolutely adored about Max, was that damned voice. No matter if it was sleep roughened, sex gruffened, deep with anger, light with laughter, teasingly sweet or furious with fear, Harry loved Max’s voice and as he yawned and snuggled up to that massive chest, listening as Max breathed deeply with exertion and continuously rumbled with encouragement and teasing reassurance that everything would be alright and that Harry would get the feeling back in his legs soon enough, Harry couldn’t think of a sweeter memory of him and Max together, except for that one time down by the lake, when Max had snogged him even though he had just been sick, that memory definitely came in as a close second, but so far, nothing beat this memory for him as he yawned again and let Max cast a cleansing charm on them, before carrying him up to the bed to snuggle in with the other three.

\------------------------------------------------------- X


	13. Inevitable Injection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just so you know, this is a missing scene from the main story! So it’ll tie in perfectly with the storyline, I just didn’t want to break the flow of the main story to put it in, take particular note of the ending!

Inevitable Injection

Harry hated it. He hated it! He didn’t want to be here, he didn’t want Braiden to be here. He still remembered his injection from a few weeks ago and his arm twinged with the remembered pain of the injected potion.   
Why did it need to be injected of all things? Nasta could harp on about it getting into the bloodstream all he wanted, Harry did not want Braiden to have to feel that level of pain and the injection was painful. Searingly so. Not to mention how badly it bruised!  
Harry held onto Braiden tightly as they sat in the hospital room together, Nasta was with him. Max was in work, Blaise and Draco were drowning under their homework so Nasta had made them stay behind, much to their anger and distress.  
Braiden’s name was called and Harry swallowed as Nasta led him down the corridor with a large hand to the small of his back. It felt like he was the one being led to the injection, but it wasn’t, it was worse. His month old baby son was having the injection instead. He’d gladly have the injection every single day of his life if Braiden never had to have it, but he had been shushed and told it didn’t work that way by an understanding Nasta, who had no more wish of doing this to their son than he did, but it was inevitable, unavoidable. Braiden had to be safe and protected from Dragon Pox. A brief burning pain in the arm over dying a slow, gruesome, horrific, agonising death was obviously the lesser of the two evils, but his baby boy was just a month old, but unfortunately the disease particularly attacked infants and the very elderly.  
Nasta greeted the St Mungos nurse, wearing her pale yellow robes, cordially, apologising as Harry refused to open his mouth and looked at her like she was going to murder him and his child as he clutched the baby in bloodless fingers.  
Nasta pulled Harry to the table and sat upon it, pulling Harry into his lap and forcing one of Braiden’s arms out of the blanket Harry was clutching to his chest, reprimanding him and telling him not to be so daft, that of course the nurse wasn’t going to actually harm Braiden and that she was only doing her job, that Braiden needed the vaccination, that every baby went through the same, that he would be fine as soon as he calmed down and got over the shock of being injected for the first time.  
The fine needle slid straight under Braiden’s delicate, soft skin. Harry watched it, watched the tip of it vanish into his son’s body. She pushed the plunger and emptied the syringe of potion into his son’s bloodstream and pulled the needle back out. That was when Braiden started screaming, as fast as his little lungs could suck in the breath.  
The nurse dabbed the spot she had injected with a numbing potion and offered them a blackcurrant lollipop. They both refused before sharing a wry smile together.  
Harry soothed Braiden as best as he could, listening to the nurse as she nattered about how many cases of Dragon Pox they had had that year alone because parents weren’t inoculating their children because they had forgotten just how important it was. Harry grimaced, there was no chance of their family forgetting, no chance that not every single child they had would be immunised, not with Draco’s Grandfather dying so horrifically of the disease just before Draco was born. Draco was not likely to ever forget to vaccinate every child.  
Harry cuddled Braiden as he screamed and thrashed and he sniffled tearfully as he accepted Nasta’s comfort, he didn’t want to see his baby this way, all red flushed, little limbs pulled tight with pain, little toothless mouth opened wide as he screamed hysterically.  
Harry was almost in tears himself as Nasta led him through the hospital to the floo point, where they went back to their Hogwarts rooms and let Draco and Blaise gather around to help sooth and comfort Braiden to no success.   
Max came home an hour later and took over trying to sooth the baby, also to no avail and Harry was crying himself at this point as he couldn’t stand Braiden being so upset and in so much pain, but after another half hour, his cries lessened, his screams tapered off and he finally fell asleep in Blaise’s arms.  
Harry sniffled and cuddled in tight to Draco’s chest, those large arms around his back and his shoulders, holding him tighter and Harry huffed himself into silence and all of them took a moment to savour the sudden silence of their rooms and their child. The worst was over for now.  
The next day saw Harry waking up to tend to a hungry Braiden and also to see the bruise the injection had left that took up nearly the entire of Braiden’s upper arm, centring around the tiny prick that the needle had made the day before.  
Harry loathed seeing it and he quickly applied the cream Max had made especially for Braiden and gently rubbed it onto the bruise, too afraid to rub it in properly in case it caused his baby further pain.  
He fed his hungry baby his bottle, watching him suck and swallow as he suckled strongly. He smiled. Braiden was fine, he hadn’t lost his appetite and he was now protected, no matter how basically, from Dragon Pox. They would take him for his other injections to get him fully protected from the disease and they would never have to watch their son die in agony from Dragon Pox.  
Some good came out of them taking Braiden for his injection, as they found out that morning with the delivered Daily Prophet; St Mungos had reported a record number of appointments for Dragon Pox vaccinations after the paper had printed a picture of Harry, Nasta and a wailing Braiden coming out of the hospital corridor, making their way to the floo point on the front page with a story about why they were there, the benefits of getting the vaccination for their child and a banner that read ‘Saviour supports Dragon Pox vaccinations!’  
Harry smiled and cuddled Braiden, who was his usual happy self again and though he knew he had done the right thing by Braiden in the long run, he was dreading when he’d have to do it all over again and take the baby back for his four month injection. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Poor Braiden. The things parents have to do to keep their children safe even when they’d rather not.
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	14. Hard Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: READ CHAPTER 53 BEFORE READING THIS CHAPTER! SPOILERS AHEAD!

Hard Truths

Max hefted his growling, snarling brother out into the back garden and pinned him to the wall of the house.

“Caesar! Caesar, come on, think for a minute!”

“Let. Go!” Caesar hissed.

Max sighed at slipped a hand into his brother’s thick blondish-brown hair and yanked it. He kept pulling until Caesar mewled like an injured kitten and instead of pulling away he cuddled in tighter.

“Back to yourself?” Max asked.

Caesar nodded and rubbed his aching scalp.

“That hurt.”

“It was meant to.” Max replied as he let his long fingers help ease the hurt he had caused.

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have gone for Harry again, especially not after what you did to me the last time, but when I saw Amelle bleeding, smelt it…”

“You couldn’t help it, just like I wouldn’t be able to help it if she made Harry bleed, but could you intercept me like I did you?”

Caesar’s eyes went wide as he looked up, all the way up to his older brother, who had always towered over him and was thicker of body than he would ever achieve, his Father was a slender man and his Mother was slender, his Father Myron was huge, broad, thick, strong and powerful and Max was an almost copy of him. He wouldn’t be able to stop Max if he went for Amelle and the thought frightened him.

“It’s not just me to contend with either, do you think Nasta, Draco and Blaise would let her get away with hurting Harry? You’d have to intercept four of us, five if Harry goes for her too, because Merlin knows he doesn’t react like a normal submissive.”

Caesar swallowed heavily. “Why are you telling me this? I know they had that fight a while back, but Amelle hasn’t hurt Harry since she’s been here.”

“Think of what she’s saying Caesar. Do you think we are unaffected by her words? By hearing that our beautiful, cherished baby boy is second best? That he’s stupid and ugly and slow? Nasta and I have been crushing each other’s hands throughout dinner just to stop us from reaching around the table and snapping her neck.”

“No! You can’t.” Caesar said hoarsely, imploringly. “I love her Max, no matter her faults she’s my mate, my Wife, my little girl’s Mother!”

“Then sort her out before I do!” Max threatened.

“I can't! When she cries I feel two inches big, I feel like scum, like I’m abusing her.”

Max understood all at once and he ground his teeth together.

“Grow a pair Caesar; you’ll be thirty in a few days. You are supposed to be the dominant mate, not her. She’s manipulating you! Do you think any of those crocodile tears are real? She’s playing you so you don’t punish her as is your right as her dominant!”

“How do you do it? Does Harry ever cry?”

“He cries, screams, throws an absolute fit, it breaks my heart every time Caesar, but he needs to learn acceptable behaviour and that we won’t accept him acting like a brat, he’s tested us, pushed up, but you just have to keep going until the fit is over, the tears are dried up and they are docile and willing to listen. You have to do it Caesar, if you don’t, and soon, she’s going to get hurt or even killed.”

“But you have good control, you’ve always been better with control than me.”

“I have good control, but not endless control, Nasta seems like he has an endless patience, but he doesn’t, Blaise has a wavering control and Draco had next to no control. It’s not just me you have to watch and as you’ve seen, Harry has a hell of a temper and can turn in an instant.”

“He hurt her.” Caesar defended weakly and Max sighed.

“Eleonora is hideous.” Max told his brother. “She’s stupid, she’s never going to be as good as Braiden, he’s just so much better, he’s smarter and much cuter. Braiden’s already talking, what can Eleonora say, ohh? That’s not a word, that’s a noise. Braiden says several words, so it’s obvious he’s smarter, Eleonora is second best to him and she always will be…”

Caesar punched Max straight in the jaw with a snarl of rage and Max ignored the pain in his jaw as he caught his brother, who was in mid-leap, launching at him. He swung Caesar to the floor and pinned him down.

“Do you see now what Amelle is doing to us? Can you see why Harry acted like he did? You can’t even last a minute under the onslaught; we’ve been dealing with it since you came here. Days and days of endless hours listening to your wife put our Braiden down, calling him names and abusing him under our very noses. It stops Caesar, it stops now! You deal with it or I will because I can’t see Harry so upset anymore. He cries before he goes to bed Caesar, he cries himself to sleep because of her and I won’t stand for it anymore. DEAL WITH IT!” Max hissed dangerously.

Caesar nodded against the grass. “I will.”

Max got up and pulled Caesar up from the ground; he hugged his baby brother tightly and tucked that head of blondish-brown hair under his chin.

“I love you Caesar, you’re my baby brother and nothing will ever change that, but if you can’t sort her out then it’s going to destroy our relationship. I’ll kill her before I let her hurt Harry again and that will destroy you and it will destroy our relationship. Thirty year’s Caesar, are you willing to throw away thirty years because you can’t grow a pair of balls and punish your submissive because she cries?”

“I don’t want to lose you. I look up to you so much Max; I wish I could be more like you.”

Max smiled lightly and stroked that soft, thick hair.

“You don’t need to be more like me Caesar, you’re fine just being you, you just need to be stronger, you need to ignore the tears and punish her properly, she’s walking all over you and you’re letting her. It needs to stop Caesar.”

Caesar nodded and Max kissed his brother’s forehead. Caesar scowled and batted him away.

“I’m not five anymore.” He insisted.

Max chuckled. “I wish you were, you used to be so cute and you were easier to boss about when you were five.”

Caesar laughed as he remembered doing everything his big brother asked of him just to please him.

“Come on, let’s get back before Dad comes out and smacks the brains out of our ears.”

Caesar shuddered and went back into the kitchen, Max following behind him. He felt better and he steeled himself to do what was needed as he realised Nasta had put a grumpy looking Harry and a softly cooing Braiden at the end of the table, the furthest away from Amelle he could without having one of them leave the room.  
Amelle opened her mouth, but Caesar demanded her to keep quiet with the most poisonous look he had ever given her and it stopped her short, those beautiful blue eyes filled with tears and it threatened his new resolve and he felt like just giving in, but he narrowed his eyes at her and turned his mouth into a snarl, she turned away from him and hunched her shoulders up, the picture of abject misery, but he wasn’t falling for it and he remained stony and silent. He’d be having a few words with her in the privacy of their bedroom, until then, he’s keep an eye on her, he wouldn’t let her come between him and Max, between him and his family.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is a missing scene from chapter 53! I chose to go with Harry and Nasta in the chapter, but Max and Caesar’s conversation was also important, putting this in the chapter would have broken it up too much and destroyed the flow, so it’s been put to the Scaled Bits instead.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	15. Alternate Ending

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!
> 
> This chapter is an alternate ending for chapter 53, not an actual chapter and it never really happened. This is how the chapter originally turned out when I first wrote it, but I edited it heavily until you got the chapter 53 that you’ve read.
> 
> THIS CHAPTER WILL DISTRESS A LOT OF YOU! PLEASE BE WARNED THAT THIS CHAPTER COMES WITH A VERY HEAVY DISTRESS WARNING AND A VIOLENCE WARNING. THERE ARE NO DISTRESS LINES IN THIS CHAPTER TO WARN YOU WHEN IT WILL HAPPEN! IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THIS CHAPTER, IT WILL NOT TAKE ANYTHING AWAY FROM THE STORY IF YOU DON’T READ! PLEASE BE SENSIBLE WITH THIS CHAPTER AS IT CONTAINS SENSITIVE ISSUES.

Alternate Ending

It was only half an hour later that they found out exactly how bad things could get when Harry rolled himself to his knees and stretched lazily, thinking of scavenging for some food.  
The popping sound was so loud it even made Sanex look up from where he was doing his paperwork.

“What was that?” He asked with a frown.

Harry quivered as he felt around his abdomen, feeling a looseness that wasn’t there previously. He was shaking and adrenaline was pouring into his bloodstream but he didn’t know why and then a smaller, quieter pop was followed by a ripped sensation that was so agonising it threw his head back as he screamed.

“Shit, Harry. What is it? What do I do?”

“Call the Healer! Call my mates!” Harry hissed out through gritted teeth as Braiden cried beside him, frightened by Harry’s screaming. He tried to hold the next scream back and bit through his tongue, but it was no use and he screamed again.

His wings burst from his body and the change threw his balance and he face planted the carpet, leaving smears of blood from his mouth on the cream fabric.  
His Dracken was fighting him, was fighting him viciously, urging him to take flight and get away from the danger. Sanex had his head in the floo, talking frantically to the person on the other end. Harry scooped Braiden up and urged his wings to work, but the pain was agonising and he could barely fly in a straight line. He was halfway up the stairs when he heard Sanex shouting for him. He made it to a bedroom, bouncing off the walls as he went, before Sanex caught up to him and Harry growled and hissed and tried to tear out the throat of the approaching threat, his baby Dracken tucked under his arm.  
He tucked himself into the corner of the room and placed his baby Dracken on the floor behind his body, the pain almost crippling him, but he had to stand and fight the human off, he needed to keep his baby Dracken safe and secure the area before his five new babies could come into the world.  
He growled threateningly and smelt weakness as the human backed away from him; he swiped and almost sunk claws into him. The human stumbled back quickly and Harry advanced, clutching his stomach which was a burning, stabbing pain that almost made him blind, but he couldn’t become vulnerable with a threat in the same room.   
Harry backed the human into a corner and hissed deeply, a rumble in his belly as his claws coated themselves in venom. He saw the human swallow and his eyes becoming wider, the whites showing more pronounced. He could smell the fear on him and it smelt like food and it had been so long since he had had fresh meat and warm blood. 

“Please Harry. It’s Sanex. Remember who I am? Sanex, Nasta’s brother. I just want to help you!”

Harry let out a continuous growl and snapped fangs at the human as a particularly vicious pain in his abdomen almost bent him double.

“Alright, alright, you win. I’m leaving.”

The human wasn’t leaving. Harry decided as he closed in, inching closer to the human backing further into the corner, his hands up and out as if to fend him off, using swipes of his claws to box the human into the corner.

“Harry! Please! It’s Sanex!” 

The human was making too much noise as he tried to shift away to the left, towards the door; Harry leapt on him and sunk fangs into the soft, fleshy neck. The human screamed as Harry sunk claws into the soft belly and ripped it, it was so soft and the blood in his mouth was so sweet, so hot, it had been so long since he had had fresh meat.   
It didn’t take long for the human to stop making noise and to stop moving and jerking as he tore into the soft body with his sharp fangs and even sharper claws. The pain in his abdomen soon had him abandoning the cooling body and slamming the door closed and throwing up wards.  
He snatched his baby Dracken from the floor and crawled onto the bed. He bunched up the soft duvet and made a soft cradle to keep his precious baby Dracken safe and warm as he started stripping himself of the restricting clothing, the pain he felt making him retch as his vision blurred for a moment.  
He hated it here; he wanted a proper nest with a vantage point so he could better protect himself and his babies, but there was no time as a child squirmed under his skin, fighting to be released.  
He tried to prepare as much as he could, making himself comfortable on a bed that smelt safe and comforting, he had two big bottles of blood within reach and his baby Dracken was calming in his crude cradle.  
The most vicious pain yet ripped through him and he screamed, mixing it with an unconscious distress call. He felt four comforting rumbles answer; they were all a long way away, his protection was not near him. He was alone.  
He stroked his engorged belly with venom coated claws and as soon as he pressed in, his body gushed outwards with fluid. He quickly split his stomach open wide and a baby fell out as soon as the split was big enough, pushed out by siblings fighting for space. His sac had ripped on its own.  
He ignored everything else as he put the baby more securely on the bed, before reaching inside, ripping the split in his sac wider and pulling out a second baby as soon as he found a neck to wrap his fingers around. The third baby was attached to the second, grasping on tightly to the second baby’s thumb and they came out one after the other easily. The fourth baby was hard to find as all he could feel was arms, legs and cords, no necks.  
He shoved down on the top of his bump and a baby moved and he grasped a neck and pulled the baby out quickly. The final baby was easy to find and cupping the baby’s neck, Harry eased it out of him before realising he had nothing to clamp the cords with. Panicked and losing blood, he looked around desperately. He found two shoe laces, a camera cord and he shredded the sheets for little strips of material. He tied them all around the babies’ umbilical cords tightly, before severing them. He ripped out all the placentas in his sac with an inhuman screech of agony before reaching over and draining a bottle of blood. It was cold and it was thick and sluggish going down his throat, but it did its job. He swallowed the second bottle as an extra safety measure as there was still a thick opening where he had cut himself that was oozing blood, but with the second bottle, it closed fully, leaving a livid red scar.   
Two of his babies were wailing incessantly, a third was squalling, red faced and blood coated. Two babies were not moving, were not crying, were not breathing.  
Panicked Harry picked them up and cradled them. They were tiny. So, so tiny that he was afraid to touch them, but he forced himself to lay back with the babies on his chest, snatching his discarded shirt and rubbing them frantically with it, trying to stimulate breathing. They didn’t breathe. Nothing he did made them breath and he screamed in horror and denial.  
His Dracken demanded that he focus on the living babies and not the dead ones, but Harry couldn’t give in so soon as he worked at the babies with his shirt and hands, rubbing their chests and stomachs to stimulate breathing, but when they still didn’t respond he got angry and shook them, one after the other, their floppy heads snapping to and fro and when they still didn’t breath he cradled them to him, tasking in their scents, but when one of his babies gave a cry of distress, his attention switched and he dropped them and found himself cradling a squalling baby, sobbing hysterically as his two dead babies lay so still and so quiet by his knees, their extremities turning blue and their shrivelled bodies becoming cold.  
He trembled as he snatched his four live babies and moved them to the corner of the room, leaving the two dead babies on the bed, but he was drawn to their tiny faces, the image already haunting him.  
He laid down, automatically facing the bed, curled around his living babies, but he couldn’t tear his eyes from the two dead babies on the bed, his youngest babies, just lying there all cold and lifeless. He choked out a sob and let out a scream of rage. Why him? Why his babies? WHY?!   
Soon the exhaustion of the labour and the birth pulled him into a restless, plagued sleep filled with nightmares of his two stillborn children.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This actually makes me feel sick still just reading it and I can’t believe I actually wrote it, but there you go, that’s what the chapter was going to be before I edited it. This will forever be branded my monster chapter, just because it’s so monstrous in nature. I hope that you all enjoyed the writing, but DID NOT enjoy what actually happened as I didn’t.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	16. Natural Hunter

Natural Hunter

Sixteen year old Maximilius Diadesen Maddison was bouncing in a growing, eager anticipation of his first ever hunt. He had come into his dominant Dracken inheritance the previous day and he was now anxious to hunt his first meal.  
The new instincts running around his head were confusing and overwhelming at times, but with both of his Dads’ around helping him and watching over him, he was feeling calm and confident, he had been told for years what to expect on his sixteenth birthday, but nothing really prepared for the uncomfortable prickling of the Dracken blood manifesting in his body, the small chemical and tissue changes as his body adjusted nor the extreme agony as his wings pulled through the skin and muscles of his back for the first time. He was amazed at the deep blue colour of his leathery wings, and by the cobalt blue and coal black scales that decorated them, they were gorgeous, though he was disappointed that they were only nineteen feet, not even average, but he had been assured that they were still growing and developing as he was. He hoped they grew to be as large as his own Dad’s twenty-six foot wings, but then he was only six foot six, four whole inches shorter than his Dad. He hoped he grew to be taller, broader and grew longer wings. He wanted a good submissive, a kind, loving, fun woman like his Mum, so he needed the biggest wings he could grow to entice her to look at him.

“Are you ready care bear?” His Dad Richard croaked out, his throat a livid red ruin even as he grinned.

Six years he had to get used to it and he still couldn’t stand seeing his Dad hurting so much, in so much pain that everyday life had become a chore. He heard his Dad screaming at night sometimes, he had padded to his room once a few days after the incident to see what was going on, to see his Dad writhing in agony on his parents bed, clutching his throat with both hands, scrabbling and clawing at the raw wound which was leaking blood, his Dad Myron holding him down as his Mum tried to get some potion into his mouth. It had frightened him and he had never gone back to his parents room when he heard those screams again, not that they often forgot silencing charms, but they did now and then. 

“Stop calling me care bear!” He demanded with a scowl.

“But you’re so cute and cuddly and all kind and loving to everyone, just like a little care bear.” 

Max would like to think he scowled evilly at his Dad, but the grin and the look in those chocolate coloured eyes told him he had failed and was likely pouting petulantly.

“Stop teasing him Richard.” His Dad said as he strode into the room, his physical presence seemed to swallow the entire room.

It was impossible not to notice Myron Maddison. Six foot ten inches tall, very broad of shoulder, slim of waist and hips and powerful of thigh. Max wanted so much to be just like his Dad, he’d get a submissive easily if he looked like his Dad.

“I’m not teasing him love!” Richard insisted.

“He is.” Max denied.

“I know he is Maximilius, your Dad Richard is always doing something he shouldn’t be. Are you ready to go hunting?”

“Yes!” He exclaimed in excitement.

He had dressed in his oldest pair of jeans and an old tee-shirt that had once been his Dad’s. His jeans weren’t quite new, but as he’d had a growth spurt at fifteen he’d had to replace all of his old clothes with new ones because his shirts just ripped off of him and his jeans were four inches too short. They were half an inch too short now, he had grown with his inheritance and not just upwards and outwards, he thought with a grin as he shifted his new equipment subtly in his too tight jeans.

“Come on then, let’s go feed you.” Richard said and he made such a simple sentence sound completely filthy, his Dad Myron clipped his Husband’s head and Max grinned as his Dad Richard started whining and pouting and trying to climb up his Dad’s body until Myron Maddison let out a long suffering sigh and embraced his sniffling mate.

“I pray that you don’t end up with a mate like your Father.” His Dad told him, but Max just grinned. If he had a mate like his Mum and Dad, life would be hilarious.

“What’s wrong with me?” Richard demanded as he wrapped his arms around Myron and nibbled an ear. “I keep you young and I submit willingly to all of your sexual advances of a dominant nature.”

“Ewwww!” Max whined as he covered his ears and screwed up his eyes as his Dads’ snogged noisily in front of him. 

He heard his Dad’s deep chuckles and his Dad Richard’s lighter, slightly choked, laughter.

“I can’t wait until he has his own submissive so we can burst in on him at inappropriate times.”

“You’d never get a grandchild then would you.” Max huffed.

That set his Dads’ off again and Max stalked away with his arms crossed.

“Oh what has your Dad said to you this time Maxie?” His Mum sighed before taking in a deep breath and yelling through the house. “RICHARD!”

His Mum came and wrapped him in her arms, even as she threatened her Husband with grievous bodily harm, even though he was much taller than she was. He always felt like a little boy again in her arms, soft, safe and comforted. He snuggled in as tightly as he could but they were broken apart by his little sister Alayla, seven years old with a hot pink dummy in her mouth holding her hands in the air, grunting around the dummy to be picked up.

“Alayla, you’re almost eight.” He told her sternly as he bent to pick her up all the same, he did as his Dad did and pulled the dummy from her mouth with a pop, her teeth clenching to try and keep the rubber teat in her mouth, but Max won the tug-of-war over the dummy.

“Maximilius!” His Mum cried as she took his crying sister from him and tried to snatch the dummy back. “Give it back to her!”

“Dad said she wasn’t allowed one, she needs to learn how to speak Mum! She’s seven and still grunts and points to things she wants like a baby.”

“But it makes her so happy!” His Mum said tearfully.

“How happy do you think she’ll be in a few years’ time when she’s in high school and still sucking on a dummy?” He asked his Mother as he dumped the dummy deeply into the bin just as his Dad’s came into the room.

“You gave her another dummy?” His Dad demanded of his Mother.

“She wanted one!” His Mum snarled as she cuddled a hysterical Alayla who wasn’t calming down and was clenching little hands in the air wanting her dummy back.

“We’ll talk more about this when we get back.” He promised as he wrapped an arm around Max’s shoulders and led him out of the kitchen. “You did well Max, but don’t fight with your Mother, just call me next time.”

Max nodded his understanding and sighed. He hated fighting with his Mum, especially over little things like a dummy, but Alayla needed to grow up, she needed to learn some independence and how to talk properly, she still had a baby lisp for crying out loud! He loved his Mum and his little sister, but he knew what his Mum was doing was wrong.

“Let’s forget about it and teach our boy how to hunt.” Richard rasped out, the sentence looked like it had caused him a great deal of pain, but he was grinning happily.

Myron smiled gently at his mate and wrapped an arm around him, rubbing his back soothingly.

“Let’s teach him to hunt.” He agreed.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------X

Max was pumped full of adrenaline as he crouched low in the tall grass, his Dads’ close behind him as they directed his attention towards a grazing stallion.  
His wings flared and the tips quivered in anticipation, he could feel more than hear his Dads’ laughing at him, but he ignored them as his belly rumbled and his mouth flooded with saliva in preparation for the meat he was about to receive. He flexed his claws that itched to rip open the stallion, but then a wind blew under his nose, he inhaled deeply and he lost complete interest in the horse as a delicious, wild, dangerous scent caressed his nose. He wanted that animal instead.  
He was gone before his Dads’ could stop him, he heard the cursing and running behind him as he tore through the wild forest, following the scent trail, he was still downwind from the animal and he caught it by surprise as he burst through a knot of trees into a clearing to see an adult, male bear, fear and adrenaline mixed into a heady intoxicator as he rushed the bear and swiped at it, like he had been shown by his Dads’ before he had even come into his inheritance.  
The bear swiped back, letting out a terrible roar that Max answered with his own as he swiped and kicked. He could smell his Dads’ close by, one on either side of the bear, ready to support him if he needed it, not getting too close, but standing close by so that he wouldn’t get killed and that gave him the confidence to crouch and then swipe up the bear’s body, slicing it open and knocking it off of its feet. One swipe across the throat killed the bear instantaneously. He flumped down and roughly tore the fur and skin from the animal as he prepared it for ingestion.   
He sunk his fangs into the tough animal messily and tore at it, chewing minimally and swallowing before slicing it up and repeating. When he was full, he completely skinned the animal and rolled the fur up; it was tradition for a dominant to keep the hide of the first animal they hunted as a trophy.   
His Dads’ congratulated him, cleaned up what he had left, before hurrying him home. Max couldn’t help but notice that they were both pale, both shaking and both worried.

“What?” His Mum asked as soon as they were home, looking from pale face, to pale face, to blood smeared and proudly grinning face.

“He went for a bear.” Myron answered as he run a shaky hand through his hair roughly. “Our sixteen year old boy took on a fully grown, male bear.”

“Oh my baby!” She cried as she rushed at him and hugged him close, sniffing over him, but the scent of bear blood was too thick upon him for her to smell anything else.

“I’m fine Mum. Look!” Max happily and proudly displayed the bear skin and she took it with a weak chuckle, tears in her eyes as she held the fur in her hands. 

“I’ll clean this up for you and make you a blanket.” She assured tenuously.

“Thanks Mum! Merlin what a rush! When can I do that again?”

“Never!” His Dad Richard snapped out roughly. “I’ve never been more terrified for you Max. Don’t you ever do that again.” 

“But Dad!” He whined. “I’m fine, it was amazing! Oh I’m so full! I love bear meat!”

“I thought we agreed that you were going to take him hunting for a horse!” Ashleigh hissed.

“We did, we were ten feet from his pre-chosen target and he just darted off after a bear that was eighty feet away!” Richard choked out. Myron’s hand rubbed firm circles on his back to calm him.

“It smelt sooo much better Dad!” Max moaned, remembering the taste and flavour of the bear on his tongue.

Ashleigh shook her head. “Be careful Max, I can’t lose another little boy.”

“Mum I’ll be fine!” He said, uncomfortable with the talk of his dead baby brother, Theo. 

Everything had changed when Theodric had been killed and his Mum and Dad had almost died. His Dad had yelled at him to stay put, to protect his brother and sisters as he and his Dad Richard had rushed off to save their Mum and unborn brother when they had realised that something terrible had happened.   
He had only been ten, looking after his eight year old brother and his six, five and two year old sisters, terrified out of his mind as he paced with a screaming Talia, who just wanted Mummy.  
His Granddad and Grandma had come around then, after he had tearfully called them through the floo. They had taken over and he had told them that his Dads’ had gone mad when they had come home from work, screaming that they couldn’t smell their Mum anymore, that she wasn’t upstairs. He knew now that she had been kidnapped from their own home as he played with his brother and sisters downstairs as his Dads’ were in work. They weren’t usually left alone, but his Dad had a very important meeting and his Dad Richard had a huge court case that he had to be there for. They overlapped only by an hour, but that hour was enough for Ricky to come and visit and kidnap their pregnant Mum from her bed while they were unaware downstairs. Every time he had eavesdropped on his parents after that, when his Dad was so injured, his Mum was screaming and crying and almost insane with grief with the death of Theodric, the same sentence was heard. ‘Thank Merlin the children weren’t taken.’  
Max felt a cold shiver run down his spine every time he thought of it. He had liked Ricky. They had even called him Uncle Ricky and he had come into their home and kidnapped their Mother and unborn brother and taken her to a gang of Dracken poachers for money. It made him sick. He would have gone with Ricky willingly. The man had taken them for ice cream before, from the van that came around, never out of sight of his parents, but still if Ricky had taken his hand and led him out of the house, with some made up story of his Dad wanting him and his siblings, he would have gone and he would have taken his brother and sisters with him and he felt horrified and disgusted with himself for that.  
He had curled into himself for months afterwards until his Grandfather noticed that he wasn’t himself and had knocked his parents into noticing. They had sat him down and all of his thoughts and feelings had tumbled out of his ten year old mouth. He remembered being cuddled up on his Dad’s lap, those huge arms wrapped around him as his family assured him that he wasn’t to blame, that he had no part in what had happened and that they had never expected him to know Ricky was planning on kidnapping their Mother when they hadn’t even known. He had cried himself to sleep in his Dad’s arms and had woken up feeling much better the next day in his bed.

“Leave off him Ashleigh.” His Dad said gruffly as he prised her off of him. “Run off Max. You did brilliantly tonight; just don’t expect us to go hunting again without holding your hand.”

Max laughed and left the room.

“Don’t forget your homework!” His Dad Richard called out cheerfully.

Max scowled and huffed as he went to complete his homework very unhappily and with a lot of grumbling.  
The thick, soft bear skin blanket was ready for him the next day and it had remained on his bed ever since, ready to show off to his submissive when he claimed her.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There you go! Max’s first hunt, his obsession with hunting bears, and a bit of information on what happened to Ashleigh and little baby Theodric.   
> I know full well that bears are not native to Britain, even though there is talk about reintroducing the bear, among other animals, back to Britain, but when did I ever say the dominants hunt in Britain? They can Apparate you know and have Portkeys. It would be too dangerous to hunt in Britain with the poachers around scouring for Drackens so they can check if they have children or not to harvest. Plus if any witch or wizard stumbles upon a hunting or feasting Dracken and gets away without being seen, they will be exposed and executed as their faces do not change with the Dracken attributes, it’s so much simpler and safer to hunt away from the country they live in and bring their kills back to their homes and submissives, Max has been taught to do this since the very first day he hunted, Nasta and Blaise have also been told to do this, the only dominant not told to hunt out of the country is Draco and he brought Harry a horse, but he’s learning, which is why he and Blaise go out with either Max or Nasta, to learn from older, more experienced dominants. The first hunt scene in the forbidden forest was considered ‘safe’ only because of the extensive wards on Hogwarts grounds and the surety that every student would much rather enjoy the Halloween feast than traipse through a cold, dark, dangerous forest at night.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed it!
> 
> Join me and other readers on Facebook, I enjoy talking to my readers and hearing your thoughts and views as the story progresses, you’ll know before hand when I’m updating the chapters, you’ll be kept up to date, you can see all of the fan art and the family trees and you can see excerpts and scenes that aren’t even published! http://www.facebook.com/starlight.mass
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	17. The Unforgiving Sun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This scene was grown in my mind from chapter 48 - Fun in the Sun, which showed all the good points of being out in the sun, this chapter shows not only the bad points of being in the sun, but the dangers of it too.  
> Nasta is 8  
> Sanex is 10  
> Angharad is 12  
> Aneirin is 31

The Unforgiving Sun

Eight year old Nasta Tabrien Delericey grinned as he hopped around the hotel room he had woken up in. Yesterday he had been in Quebec, Canada, today he had woken up in Alexandria, Egypt.

“Calm down Nassa.” His sister Angharad laughed. 

“Don’t call me that! I’m not a girl!” He scowled.

“You’re too cute when you do that.” His brother Sanex said with a grin, pinching his cheek.

Nasta slapped him away and called him an idiot in Swahili. 

“Dad! Nasta’s saying stuff in other languages that I don’t understand again!” Sanex called out. 

“Will you kids settle down?” Their Father, Aneirin Delericey told them, coming out of the bathroom with half a face full of shaving foam, razor in hand.

“But Daddy, we’re in Egypt!” Nasta said excitedly with a grin.

Aneirin smiled indulgently at his baby boy’s excitement. 

“Yes we are, we’ll go for breakfast, I have a small meeting this morning and then we can go and visit the Valley of the Kings.”

“Really?” Nasta squeaked in excitement, bouncing more vigorously.

“Yes, really. Just get yourself dressed Nas, you can’t go around in your pyjamas, Sanex, make sure he has his hat and sunglasses and make sure he’s covered with sun cream, don’t forget to do yourself! Angharad honey, can you make sure the snack bag is filled please?”

“Of course Dad.” Angharad said with a smile, moving to the little kitchenette and pulling out a cool bag and checking through it, making sure there were water bottles and potions in it, that the front pouches held plasters because her brothers were bound to scrape their knees on something and she cut up a couple of apples, carrots, half a cucumber and some celery, put them into airtight, plastic containers and slipped them into the cold area of the bag. She made sure she had Sanex’s favourite toy and Nasta’s blankie, because no matter how often he pouted and stomped that he was a big boy and that he didn’t need it, if he fell over and got cut, it was the first thing he asked for.  
She watched with a grin as her ten year old brother wrestled her eight year old brother into his shorts as Nasta wriggled and giggled on the bed.  
Sanex huffed before digging little fingers into Nasta’s sides making him shriek. Their Father darted into the room like lightning and visibly deflated as he saw the cause for the noise.

“Stop teasing your brother Nex, Nas, get your shoes on love.”

“Kay Daddy.” Nasta answered as Sanex moved away to get his own shoes.

Nasta pulled on his shoes and tied his laces with relish. He showed them to his Dad for inspection, like he had been doing since he was four and had mastered tying his laces. He always got praised and he loved praise.

“Good boy Nas.” Aneirin patted his head with a grin, knowing exactly what his son was doing. “Now get your hat and sunglasses and we can go for breakfast.”

Nasta grinned as he scooped up his pale green sun hat and his plastic crocodile designed sunglasses and bounced as his twelve year old sister made sure she had everything, giving their Dad the cool bag to carry, before checking herself in the mirror, making sure her shorts were straight and her top was unwrinkled.

“You look lovely Angharad.” Their Dad told her as he took hold of Nasta’s hand and urged Sanex out of the hotel room.

“Are we going to see the Pyramids Daddy? And the Sphinx?”

“Of course, do you have your camera?”

Nasta nodded as he showed his Dad the unbreakable camera around his neck. They ate breakfast quickly so that they wouldn’t be late for the business meeting, Nasta made sure not to spill any of his unsweetened, unsalted porridge over his shirt, he could be a messy eater if he rushed and he liked the tee-shirt he was wearing and didn’t want to hold up his Dad’s important meeting by having to change it.   
This was always the worst and most boring part of coming to a new country. The meeting and greeting, the being on his best behaviour and not being able to run about and play as he wanted to.   
He was given a colouring book and a box of crayons and he set to colouring in one picture while Sanex coloured the other page, Angharad was doing her homework for her school.  
He and Sanex had coloured in four pages each when their Daddy turned around from the big spinny chair he was in and stood up, he looked angry, but he smiled happily at them and held out his hand. Nasta leapt up and allowed himself to be pulled into a hug by his Daddy as Sanex handed their colouring book and their crayons to Angharad to pack away.  
This was his favourite part of visiting another country, the exploring! He bounced on his Daddy’s hip as he walked quickly with long strides that he would never have kept up with, Sanex jogging beside them as their Daddy held his hand tightly and Angharad followed closely behind.

“Right, are you up for visiting the Bazaar first?”

“Yes!” Nasta answered immediately, so excited to be here.

His Dad smiled and led them all around, telling them stories and teaching them about the histories of where there were. The high sun beat down upon him and he frowned as he ran about with Sanex, his little face pulling into tight lines as he wiped little beads of sweat off of his forehead, he didn’t usually sweat in such hot climates, he pulled his hat lower over his face and settled his sunglasses back on his nose, covering his eyes completely.  
By midday he was feeling hot and dizzy and tired. He pestered Angharad until she picked him up and carried him on her back, but he was getting tired still even though he wasn’t walking.

“Nassa, you’re getting too heavy love, can you walk for a bit?”

“I don’t think I can.” He sniffled as his body hurt. “I’m dizzy.”

“Dizzy? Oh Nassa, why didn’t you say? Dad!”

Their Dad turned from where he was pointing something out to Sanex and approached them with a concerned frown.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nassa’s dizzy and he can’t walk.”

Nasta was immediately in their Father’s arms being licked and sniffed subtly and their Dad hissed lowly.

“You have heat exhaustion, Angharad, get the salt water please darling.”

They moved under the shade of a large tree and their Dad sat on the floor with him in his lap as Angharad dug out a bottle of water and tipped the contents of a little purple packet into it, shook the bottle and handed it over.

“Drink this baby.” Aneirin coaxed, holding the bottle to his lips.

“I’m not a baby.” Nasta said adamantly as he wrapped his lips around the bottle and sipped it, knowing better than to gulp.

The water was warm, so he didn’t get sick, but it was very refreshing and he sipped quarter of a bottle down before he began feeling better and stopped to take in a few deep breaths, he still felt hot and uncomfortable, but he wasn’t feeling as dizzy anymore.

“You’re burning Nas. Angharad love, pass the sun cream, Nasta could do with a top up I think. Nex did you cover him properly?”

Nasta looked horrified to his older brother, who looked just as frightened and was a pale white. They had forgotten the sun cream that morning.

“Sanex? Did you cover Nasta properly?”

“Dad I…I never.”

“You never what?” Aneirin Delericey was a very shrewd, intelligent man; it did not take him more than a few moments to realise what his ten year old son was saying. “You forgot to put the sun cream on him.”

The sharp smack to the back of the head came out of nowhere and Sanex sniffled as their Dad coated Nasta quickly and thickly with the very high factored cream.

“We need to get back to the hotel.” He told his children. “Nasta, you need a bath baby.”

“Not a baby.” Nasta answered pathetically, feeling sad that he’d miss seeing and learning about Egypt.

They reached the hotel quickly and Nasta was settled in a cool bath, not too warm, not too cold to regulate his core temperature. It was then that the sunburn made itself known and he whined and wriggled in discomfort as his whole body hurt.  
He was laid on his bed and left in only his little red briefs, his blankie snuggled tight to his face as he made his discomfort known. He felt bad for Sanex, who had been spanked when they got to the hotel, but he was feeling so uncomfortable and hurt that he couldn’t bring himself to feel too sorry for Sanex; he’d take a spanking over this constant, throbbing pain if given a choice.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Nasta woke up and wailed. Sanex, who was sleeping next to him in the big bed, woke up and looked at him, gasped and then ran into their Dad’s bedroom. His Dad was there before he could finish another half a wail.

“Oh Nasta, are you in much pain love?” 

Nasta held his arms out, asking to be picked up. His Dad, for the first time ever, never picked him up.

“Nasta, you’re terribly sunburnt, it’ll hurt to touch you baby.”

“I’m not a baby.” Nasta pouted, his Dad just smiled widely as he plucked his blankie from beside him and rubbed it against his cheek. It hurt, but the familiar, comforting smell of the blankie more than made up for it.

“You’re always going to be my baby.”

“What about me?” Sanex asked indignantly, but Aneirin could see straight through the tone, Sanex wanted reassurance after yesterday. 

He pulled the ten year old onto his lap and kissed the front of his throat as he cuddled his oldest son.

“All three of you are always going to be my babies.”

“Even Anga?” Nasta asked.

Aneirin laughed. “Yes Nasta, even Angharad. She used to be a baby too and to me she will always be my little girl.”

“But she’s twelve!” Nasta exclaimed in wonderment, trying to picture Angharad as a baby.

“Yes she is, almost a teenager. She’ll be a lovely woman soon and you and Sanex will be handsome men. But you’ll be my little babies for as long as I can keep you. Now let’s get some after sun lotion on you Nas.”

Nasta cried and wriggled all through the application as his skin was a bright, burnt red that felt raw and painful and turned from red to white as it was touched. He remained spread eagled on the bedspread, his blankie tucked under his ear as he sobbed.

“Oh Nasta.” His Dad sighed as he held a cup with a straw to his mouth so he could drink without sitting up.

Nasta spent the next three days in bed, getting out only to be dumped into a cool bath and when he woke up on the fourth day, he screamed. His brother shot up, his sister trampled her way from the room next door and his Dad was just there as quick as lightening.

“What is it, what’s wrong?”

“My skin is coming off!” He cried hysterically as he pointed to the peeling skin on his arm. “It’s coming off! I’m dying!”

“Nassa, you’re not dying.” His sister assured him softly, shoving her sleep tousled, long black hair out of her sharp blue eyes and sitting next to him on the bed.

“Of course you’re not.” Aneirin confirmed as Nasta’s tear filled hazel eyes, today with soft green hints, turned to him for reassurance. “You have sunburn love, when your skin heals itself, it makes the old, burnt skin peel away so the new skin underneath can come out, look.”

Aneirin gripped a flaking piece of skin and peeled it so very gently from Nasta’s body. “See the new skin underneath love?”

Nasta nodded tearfully as he watched his own skin be peeled away like an orange. He was treated again with the Aloe Vera lotion and he was given a mild pain killer as he snuggled back down with his blankie. The sleepiness he was feeling was getting less and less, he hoped that soon he wouldn’t feel too tired to do anything and that he’d be up and running about with his brother and sister again.  
It took his skin weeks to stop peeling and after a while Nasta got used to pulling little strips of his skin off in the bath. He wasn’t hurting anymore and he was feeling so much better and happier and he was eating properly again and drinking more which made his Dad happy and he even got to see the pyramids! Of course he was smothered in sun cream by his Dad and had his lotion topped up every two hours without fail, but he didn’t care as he ran around, his hand in his sister’s as she pulled both him and Sanex along, their Dad grinning at them from behind as they played and ran, before they walked around the magical area of the pyramids and even got to tour the tombs! He learnt so much and he was so happy that he almost forgot he had even gotten sun burnt, but a few weeks later he had a permanent reminder in the form of a small brown skin legion. Nasta found the little spot and run his fingers over the raised circular shaped brown mark. He frowned as he pinched it between his fingers and played with it in the bathroom mirror. It was strange and he didn’t know what it was. It hadn’t been there before, so why was it there now, what was it?

“Daddy!”

“What’s the matter love?” His Dad called from the next room, sounding grumpy and tired. The meetings here in Egypt hadn’t been going very well.

“There’s something growing on me!” Nasta said back.

“Come here Nasta.”

Nasta did as he was told and was pulled onto his Daddy’s lap, his fingers still playing with the funny brown bump.  
His Daddy’s hands pushed his away gently and then bigger, thicker fingers than his brushed over the growth and Nasta heard his Dad sigh.

“It’s a skin legion love, commonly called a mole. It’s caused by sun damage.”

“My sunburn.”

His Daddy kissed the mole and then rested his chin on his little shoulder.

“I can’t smell or taste anything malicious with it, so likely it’s not a danger to you, but we’ll keep an eye on it alright?”

“So it’s not going to grow over me?”

His Dad chuckled. “No Nasta, it’s not going to grow over you, it likely won’t get any bigger than it is now, but you will possibly have it for life.”

“Oh. But it won’t hurt me?”

“No love.”

“That’s alright then, it can stay if it doesn’t hurt.”

“It won't hurt unless you pick at it, so leave it alone.” His Dad scolded as Nasta dug at it with his short nails.

“But it’s new and fun to play with.” He pouted.

His Dad kissed him lightly on the lips and patted his head.

“Leave it alone Nasta love, go play with your toys and your brother and sister; we’re going to visit the Valley of the Kings tomorrow, so I want you well rested.”

Nasta grinned and bounced off, his little brown mole, located in the middle off his back off to the left side, near enough forgotten for now, but one thing was for certain as he and Sanex rolled around with Angharad laughing at them from the floor, he never had sunburn ever again and he never once forgot to cover himself in sun cream and neither did his Dad and brother.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I love this; Nasta was such an exuberant, inquisitive child and this was the perfect plot to show Nasta’s childhood, how he grew up, give you some insight into his family and how he got his little mole, mentioned in chapter 48. I hope you have enjoyed it.
> 
> Oh and before anyone asks, the little purple packet added to the bottle of water is Dioralyte, it's rehydration salts used to replace lost water and body salt from dehydration and excessive sweating.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	18. Determination

Determination 

Maximilius Diadesen Maddison, aged thirty-one, quivered as he felt the call of a submissive run through his entire body. There had been so many this year that it made him hopeful that there would be at least one out there for him, this made the fifth submissive this year, a high and likely the last of the year as it was nearing November and what were the chances of another submissive appearing between now and January?  
He made his way to the familiar castle of Hogwarts, to where he had been rejected once before. Rebecca has been the worst sort of submissive he could have wished for, hard-faced, arrogant, vain, snobby, yet foxily clever. She had passed over him because of his stunted wings, his first ever meeting and she had destroyed any amount of confidence he had had. His Dads had been ranting and raving about it for months while trying to get him to pick himself up and stop him from killing himself weightlifting to try and improve himself for the next meeting.   
He had soon stopped that behaviour when he realised it was futile, but it was harder to do after every submissive that didn’t chose him. Rejection after rejection after rejection.  
Hogwarts had never been a good place for his family to find submissives. No one in his family had ever found their submissive at Hogwarts, none had found any at Durmstrang and only one great-great-great Uncle had found a submissive in Beauxbatons, his early rejection also didn’t bode well as he was taken into a large, three storey house across the lake of the great castle.  
He just wanted a peek at the submissive, but she wasn’t here, every dominant was raving, asking those that had arrived before them what the submissive was like, but none of them seemed to know. The submissive was locked up with her chaperone and likely her family and the dominants that had seen her were nowhere to be seen.  
He found his Uncles and his lone Aunt Kyra, quickly and settled among them easily.

“Oh I hope she’s a young, fit brunette.” His Uncle Cassander was saying pervily. “The last few have been red heads and blondes; we’re due a nice dark haired, dark eyed beauty.”

“Calm down Cass.” His Uncle Sandor coached. “No need to get worked up so quickly when she might look like the rear end of a bull.” 

Max laughed strongly and grinned at his Uncle, who winked at him.

“I doubt it.” A young nineteen-ish dominant cut into their conversation. “The submissive is gorgeous apparently, a real knock out with jet black hair, bright green eyes and a little pink mouth just perfect for oral.”

“You shouldn’t be so disrespectful.” A strong, smooth voice growled at the young dominant. Max recognised and nodded to Nasta Tabrien Delericey, a family friend.

“Have you seen the submissive Delericey?” He asked curiously.

The older man shook his head negatively. 

“This meeting is turning out very differently from the uniform of the others; usually the submissive is here upon our arrival to greet us.” His Uncle Cepheus commented, his black eyes clashing with his blonde hair, so much like his twin brother, Nicodemus’.

“If that baby dom is right and she’s a black haired, green eyed stunner I don’t care what she does as long as she picks me.” Cassander grinned.

“How many black haired, green eyed submissives have there been?” Max asked curiously.

“Uhh let me think about that, uh….none!” Cassander answered rocking on the balls of his feet excitedly.

“There was one.” Sandor reminded him. “Tulie in nineteen-sixty-two.”

“She was a redhead! That hair was dyed black.” His Uncle refuted. “Bright orange eyebrows and eyelashes gave her away and weak green eyes, like the colour of peppermint tea.”

“You mean that peppermint water you drink? That’s not tea Uncle.” Max answered. 

“You watch your cheek boy!”

Max laughed and decided that this meeting was not going to come any sooner and sat himself down at the table closest to his Uncles. He peered around at the competition and smiled boastfully when he realised he was the tallest and the broadest at these meetings still, not that he expected any new baby dom to be taller or broader than he was.  
His Uncle Cassander groaned when he saw the form of Elder Trintus call the dominants to order.

“Oh not him!” He moaned. “I won’t be able to get so much as a squeeze!”

The submissive was tired and wanted to be left alone for the night, so they were all to retire to their bedrooms, which were little more than box rooms with beds.  
Max hoped that this particular submissive wasn’t going to draw out the process for long; he hated submissives that teased and strung along all the dominants when they knew full well who they wanted their mate to be.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Max was sure he couldn’t breathe; he couldn’t swallow or exhale as he saw the submissive for the first time the next morning.  
Gorgeous, jet black hair, brilliantly bright emerald green eyes shaped like almonds, pale, milk and honey toned skin with just a hint of healthy pink, a slim, slender body that looked very flexible, a cute button nose and a mouth he was already fantasising about kissing for hours at a time.  
But this submissive was no young girl. Despite looking so effeminate and soft like all submissive Drackens, it was immediately apparent that this submissive was a young boy and hope blossomed within his chest.   
He had always known he was more receptive to the idea of being with a male than a female, but he had gotten himself used to the idea of being with a female submissive, but hoping that she needed a grounding mate so that he was at least mated to another male, even if they would be a dominant, but this gorgeous young boy would make that hope unnecessary. If the male submissives were coming back, he wouldn’t have to settle for having a female submissive.

“I can count on one hand how many male submissives I’ve seen.” Cassander breathed reverently. 

“How many Uncle?” Max asked, not taking his eyes from the nervous form of the young boy half hiding behind Elder Trintus, who was still addressing them.

“Including this one? One!” Cassander laughed. “He’s the only one I remember.”

“He’s the only one I’ve ever come across.” His Uncle Nicodemus nodded, his black eyes pinned to the boy with a predatory gleam.

Max’s Dracken roared up inside of him. Jealousy and rage. He knew then that he’d be fighting his Uncles and his Aunt Kyra for this particular submissive; they were not going to bow out of the competition for him like they had all done for Caesar.

\---------------------------------------------------------------- X

Max greeted the submissive, Harry, only an hour later and passed him his gift of home baked ginger biscuits. Harry thanked him softly and gave him a small smile that almost melted him into his shoes, allowed him to kiss a baby soft, pink flushed cheek that felt like silk under his dry lips and he watched proudly as Harry nibbled on a biscuit.

“These are really nice.” Harry praised and Max swelled like an inflated balloon.

He hugged that tiny, fragile looking body to his chest, inhaling that pure, untouched scent mixed with chestnuts and a hint of vanilla, that scent made him hard in his boxers and he shifted away a bit so the submissive wouldn’t feel him as they hugged, the last thing he wanted to do was to frighten such an untouched, virgin submissive and then the Elder was there shooing him away and leading Harry towards another gaggle of dominants, he grinned when Harry reached into the box he had given him and bit into another biscuit. The submissive liked his simple, inexpensive gift much more than the gaudy jewellery, bright beads and useless trinkets that were being shoved at him. He was in with a fighting chance and he practically skipped off to boast to his Uncles.   
He found his Uncle Cassander sulking and his other Uncles looking just as put out and his boastful grin slid from his face. Had the submissive rejected his Uncle already? Cassander usually lasted to the end of third day at least, the name Maddison demanded respect within the Dracken community after all.

“What happened?” He asked. 

“That damned Trintus!” His Uncle pouted and all at once Max rolled his eyes and breathed a bit easier. “All I did was squeeze one of those pert, rounded bum cheeks! You’d think I’d pinned him down, striped him bare and broke his virginity in front of his holy grandmother from the way that man acted!”

“Cassander, please!” Kyra said disgusted. “He’s a sixteen year old boy. He’s not going to be interested in anyone over twenty, just like the rest, he’s still a submissive Dracken.”

“He liked my gift.” Max said with a sly grin and found himself at the attention of his four Uncles and his Aunt.

“What did you give him? He threw mine back in my face.”

“You gave him a box of condoms and told him the other dominants would never know if he came back to your bedroom for an hour.” Sandor told Cassander in a long suffering voice.

Max couldn’t help but growl and his five family members pulled back.

“You’re really going for him aren’t you?” Cepheus asked.

Max looked away and breathed deeply to calm himself; he had more control than this damn it!

“He’s different.” He answered. “I just know it. He doesn’t seem at all like the stuck up bitches that are usually at these meetings. I can’t put my finger on it, but he’s not like the rest.”

“He wasn’t raised by Drackens.” A melodious voice from behind him stated.

Max half turned to see who had spoken to see a baby dominant standing at six foot three inches, with tanned olive skin, black layered hair and brilliant indigo coloured eyes. He recognised Marianna Lychorinda’s son, Blaise Zabini and he nodded in greeting.

“What do you mean?” Max asked curiously.

“Do you even know who you’re trying to mate with?” He demanded incredulously and Max felt his eyebrows raise, who the hell was this baby dom to speak to him like that? Who was he to speak to anyone like that?

“Is there something special about him, more than the other submissives?” His Aunt Kyra asked.

“Black hair, green eyes named Harry, sixteen years old and in Hogwarts?” Blaise questioned as if they were stupid and Max narrowed his eyes dangerously.

“Hold on, hold on one minute!” His Uncle Sandor exclaimed hurriedly. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

“Haven’t you seen the scar above his left eye yet?” Blaise questioned before turning and leaving.

Max growled and took a step after him, but his Aunt’s hand on his wrist turned him back to the family.

“Leave him be Maximilius, he’s just a baby dom.”

“What was all that about?” Cassander asked, but he perked up when Harry entered the room.

His Uncle Sandor said nothing but he craned his head and neck searching for something on the submissive.

“Ha!” He cried triumphantly. “This meeting is going to be one to remember!” He grinned.

“Why?” Nicodemus asked.

“Look at his forehead, over his left eye!” Sandor grinned.

Max looked and felt like he’d just been crippled by a heavy blow. A thin lightning bolt scar adorned the submissive’s forehead, only just visible through the tufts of black hair he called a fringe. Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived. The boy he had heard stories about, the boy he had told his siblings about in bedtime stories. The boy who had destroyed Voldemort for good not a year ago.

“The Potter blood is too diluted!” Cepheus exclaimed. “Two generations without a single inheritance.”

“Just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how diluted the blood is.”

Max didn’t know what to feel. To have the Harry Potter as a mate would be a huge honour and a point of pride, but he had wanted the sweet submissive before he had found out, what if Harry now thought that Max only wanted him because of what his name was, not who he actually was? He cursed the baby dom, Zabini for forcing him to work it out, he would have had a bigger chance not knowing!

\---------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Max wanted to tear the head off of Dominic Getus. Elder Getus’ Grandson. He had frightened Harry into fleeing and no one had seen hide nor hair of him all night.  
They were all in the dining room, which was large enough to seat all of them at the same table, when Harry edged into the room like a skittish kitten, avoiding all of their gazes and quickly making his way to Elder Trintus, who he all but clung to. Sitting close to him at the head of the table and started speaking softly to him. Max doubted Harry even realised how terrified he looked and Max’s large hands clenched into fists. He wanted to kill Dominic for doing this to poor Harry.

“He doesn’t have to, in fact I don’t want him to, what I want is for him to leave.” Harry shouted from the head of the table, drawing every eye to him, where he was actually screaming at Elder Getus.

“You don’t know what you’re saying Harry.” Elder Getus told the boy firmly, chidingly and Max grinned as he saw those green eyes narrow and darken with anger.

“Yes I do. I will not stay here whilst he is here. I want him gone!” Harry said loudly and Max cackled inside.

“Get rid of him.” One dominant near his Uncle Cassander growled. “How can we properly interact with Harry if he is constantly running away from him?!”

“Let us not be hasty, all of you reacted the same to Harry when you first got here, Dominic is no different.” Elder Getus tried to placate, but Max was not even going to stand to be compared to that man’s Grandson! 

“We didn’t act like him!” Max burst out harshly. Trying to get Harry to see that not all of them were like Dominic. “We respected the rules! None of us would have dared enter the submissive’s room, only he has been rude and disrespectful enough to do so!”

“He’s right; no one else has barged into my rooms like that.” Harry answered, giving him a gorgeous, endearing little smile that almost melted him into a puddle of liquid on the floor, but he tried to portray confidence by smirking back, even though his knees felt weak, his eyes bright and happy at being acknowledged by Harry, though he couldn’t help that his chest swelled up with pride and happiness at the attention he was receiving from the gorgeous boy.

“There are some of you here that I just can’t be around, we are completely incompatible and you’ll never be my mate, I can't concentrate on any of the others if you’re here.” Harry said and Max was seeing a whole new side to this little submissive. Not the skittish boy from a few moments ago or the shy boy who was being forced to greet so many men all clamouring for his attention, but a boy with a quiet confidence, who knew what he wanted and was not going to settle for anything less.

“Alright dear one, you can come with me after your breakfast and we will interview each Dracken in turn, if you aren’t compatible with each other, you have the right to reject them.” Elder Trintus told him soothingly, easing Harry down from irate anger and coaxing him to eat all with one sentence. There was a reason Elder Trintus was deemed one of the best submissive chaperones and was highly sought after to chaperone meetings.

“I like that idea; it will give me a chance to spend some one on one time with all of you to find my prospective mate.”

Max liked that idea as well, he was sure if he got to spend some quality time with Harry, just the two of them, well three if Elder Trintus had to be included because he would be there, but with no other dominants vying for his attention and taking his attention away from him, Max was sure he’d be in with a chance to win Harry over. He just needed some time!

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Max was devastated by the blow he had just been given. Four hours he had been waiting for his name to be called over the raucous screaming, growling and fighting going on around him.   
Elder Getus was calling out random names from a piece of parchment and Max was sure he was avoiding all the top contenders on purpose after Harry had refused to even stay in the same room as Dominic when he had been the first ‘random’ name chosen.  
Blaise Zabini had been called and the cocky baby dom had sauntered off. Their meeting was taking too long, much longer than any of the others and his heart sunk when Harry entered the room not even halfway through the list of names.  
His gorgeous pure white wings with their white scales were tucked in protectively to his sides as if he was expecting a blow.

“You spent longer with him!” One dominant on the opposite side of the room to Max burst out. “I want a longer interview as well.”

“None of you are going to get another minute of my time. I’m sorry, but it seems that I have already found my first mate. Elder Trintus believes that Blaise and I mated from our very first handshake, which is why I have been less receptive to any of your advances. I’m sorry, but I am no longer looking for a mate.”

Harry told them as his dominant wrapped strong arms around Harry’s shoulders, his black wings flared out proudly displaying the black and purple scales for them all to see, boasting that even though he didn’t have the biggest wings, he had still been chosen.   
Harry’s tiny hands bent upwards towards Blaise’s almost subconsciously and Max watched as their hands joined, their fingers laced together tightly as if they couldn’t bear to let go of one another. They had truly mated and strongly as well, Harry had to be very powerful to be able to mate so thoroughly from just a handshake, it usually took the first heat to forge such a strong bond at least, but the two were acting as if they had been mated for a year already, not just a day or two.  
The other dominants were in uproar and one got shoved into him and he growled viciously and threw him to the floor, well away from him. He had missed his chance of having a male submissive, who knew when the next one would come around? Submissives didn’t want older mates, it seemed even Harry Potter was not an exception to that, taking Blaise Zabini, a dominant who may have already been seventeen, but one that was in the same school year as he was.

“You know you cannot seek retribution.” Elder Trintus spoke up loudly, his voice easily carrying over the shouts and growls of all the dominants. “Against Harry or Blaise. But this isn’t over yet, Harry is a very powerful Dracken and will require another mate at least, possibly two or even three more, you all have the chance to try again.”

There was that at least, but Max felt morose and sulky as he realised that Harry would likely chose a second baby dom to mate to. He hadn’t shown any interest in any of the older Drackens and had chosen a baby dom for a mate, he truly was going to be forced to pick a snobbish female submissive and hope she needed a grounding mate.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Every single one of them smelt when Harry went on heat. Max clenched his entire body as he just wanted to kill one or two of the dominants around him at the thought that tonight, Harry would be losing his virginity to that damned baby dom.  
Several dominants lost their lives that night and the following days that Harry was on heat. Max fell into a state where he was constantly hard and aching, thinking and fantasising about how Harry would be in the heat of passion. Was he a screamer? A talker? Did he make cute, sexy noises that inflamed the blood and made his partner harder and more eager to hear more of those noises? Was he perhaps a scratcher or a biter, would he tear up his partners back with his nails or his claws? Ruin their neck with teeth and fangs?   
But Max was sure of one thing; Harry would not be a passive lover. He would not lie meekly in bed and let his partner do all of the work like a rag doll, but he didn’t know how Harry would act in bed. He liked to think he was a complete wild cat, thrusting back and clawing and biting and locking arms and legs around his partner and becoming so enflamed by their lovemaking that nothing else mattered but their mutual pleasure, but he could likewise be a quieter lover, just wrapping up his lover in arms and legs and moaning softly into their ear, both had their merits and both made him rub himself raw as he waited for Harry to finish his heat and then come looking for a second mate. No other submissive had ever made him act or feel like this and he was adamant that he would be Harry’s second mate, he would not be beaten by another baby dom.  
When Harry came back into the house, smelling of chestnuts and wearing the musk of his dominant, Max lamented the loss of that pure, untouched smell with its light vanilla scent.  
Harry was so blissful and so happy as he walked around with Blaise strutting behind or beside him. It made his jealousy grow. It should be him with Harry!  
Harry’s white wings had taken on purple scales and Max hated seeing them, he wanted Harry to have his blue scales, not that baby dominant’s purple!  
The Elders were greeting Harry and Blaise and they were speaking so quietly none of them could hear them, but Harry’s eyes flashed dangerously, sexily, when Dominic stepped forward and spoke to him.

“Good, but you will still never be my mate. I don’t want you as my mate!” Harry suddenly shouted and Max grinned. 

“Now Harry, it isn’t a choice as such but a need to have the strongest mate possible, Dominic might be the best suited mate for you.” Elder Getus tried to placate.

“He’s not.” Harry replied stubbornly and loudly. There were a few snorts, laughs and titters from the crowd of dominants and Max was one of them. He loved how forceful and demanding Harry could be, he wondered if this was the part of him that took over during sex and subtly tugged himself as he swelled in his trousers.

“If we could calm this down a bit.” Elder Trintus boomed over everyone. “Harry wishes to get to know all of you in turn; he wishes to see you when you are relaxed and comfortable. You will not be permitted to take Harry away from this house or its grounds, you will not be permitted to be alone with Harry without myself and his first mate, Blaise present and you are not permitted to touch him at any time.”

“Dominic will be going first.” Elder Getus stated as if it was his grandson’s birth right and Max saw Harry swelling with rage and those gorgeous green eyes flashed with his temper. His white wings with their shiny, deep purple, scales flared out and sweet Harry bared his fangs to the elder man and hissed deeply.

“He won't!” Harry declared harshly. “He won’t even get a fucking turn because I don’t want him!”

Max was almost beside himself in joy, laughing deeply as Harry cursed for the first time and glared and snarled at an Elder viciously.

“All dominants deserve a fair chance at becoming your mate Harry.” Elder Getus chided.

“Then why are you pushing your grandson at me? Why does he have to go first for everything? That isn’t fair to the others!” Harry refuted.

Blaise placed a single hand on the back of Harry’s neck, he didn’t squeeze or apply any pressure at all and Harry calmed down immediately, his body relaxing and his temper cooling.   
Max felt an insurmountable level of jealousy and he growled deeply and dangerously, it should be him up there with Harry! He wanted to be Harry’s mate so badly!

“I want a list of all the names and ages of the dominants.” Harry told Elder Trintus, before taking Blaise’s hand and storming away.

Elder Trintus followed Harry a minute or two later with the plastic folder of parchment from Elder Getus. Max wandered over to his Uncles who were heckling each other like children, his Aunt Kyra shook her head slowly at him and he grinned.

“Have you had any more luck getting him Maxie?” Cassander asked.

“No, he’s not interested in anyone other than his current mate. It’s disheartening. I know most submissives love their first dominant more than the subsequent mates, but to see it right in front of your eyes is something different, I don’t think I could live knowing I was second best.” 

Harry was back and he was flushed. Cassander chuckled. 

“Looks like he got in a quickie.”

“Stop being crude!” Kyra growled, smacking her brother upside the head.

“Harry has reviewed all of your names and ages and has now decided that he would like to begin his search for his second mate.” Trintus called out loudly, ensuring that all dominants heard him. “Harry are there any deciding factors which would make you completely discount one of these dominants as your mate?”

Harry looked to Blaise and Max’s heart sunk. If Harry was so attached to Blaise that he was looking to him to choose his second mate for him, he might as well just leave, he’d have no chance at all. Blaise wrapped Harry up securely in those long arms and Max staved off a biting comment that his arms were longer and bulkier and would better comfort Harry.

“Just get on with it!” One of the younger dominants shouted out impatiently. “Get rid of the granddads and start the process already, the waiting is killing me!”

Max snarled and knew from the age of the dominant that ‘granddad’ dominants meant anyone over the age of thirty, which included himself, not only his Uncles and Aunt.

“Who are you?” Harry asked, those eyes glinting with an emotion Max couldn’t identify, but made him swallow nervously. He mentally begged Harry not to pick this dominant to ‘interview’ first.

“Serif Ribbin. Twenty-three.” The dominant with lush heather coloured, twenty-four foot, wings answered proudly and Max wanted to stab out his eyes.

Harry went down the list of parchments and found Serif on the list, took up his quill and exaggeratedly scratched out the name with vicious force.

“Thank you Serif, you can leave now.” Harry said sweetly and Max grinned as he realised Harry was not going to let Blaise pick his mate for him.

“What?” Serif demanded haughtily.

“You can leave now. I don’t want a cruel or spiteful man as a mate. Bye bye.”

Max laughed with some others. Harry was just amazing and he gladly watched as Serif was dragged out by a mated dominant who had agreed to come and play security for Harry’s meeting.

“Right, let’s start looking for my next mate.” Harry stated lackadaisically. “But first things first, if any of you are currently married or have a significant other at home, you can leave as well, I don't want to be labelled as a home wrecker thanks.”

Max grinned as a few more dominants were bumped off and he admired Harry for not allowing himself to be mated to a man who already had another family somewhere in the world.

“How do you want to do this?” An older dominant asked from the back, Max recognised Arsenio Demetrius immediately.

“Who are you?” Harry asked, just like he had Serif and Max saw Arsenio’s eyes harden.

“Arsenio Demetrius. Forty-two.” He answered stonily.

Harry surprised every single person in that hall by holding out a small pale hand and smiling softly at Arsenio, who blinked and looked faintly stunned to be on the receiving end of that smile.

“I think I’d like to get to know you first Arsenio.” Harry declared.

Blaise bent down to whisper into Harry’s ear and Harry whispered back as Arsenio moved slowly and cautiously to the front of the room as Elder Trintus beckoned him forward.

“You can't be serious!” Dominic screamed. 

“I thought I told you to leave?” Harry stated, looking dispassionately at Dominic. 

Arsenio took Harry’s attention back when he picked up the tiny hand and kissed the palm gently. Harry smiled so softly at Arsenio that Max wondered if he had mated to Arsenio through that little kiss, but Harry took Arsenio’s hand, took Blaise’s hand and walked away from the room between them, Elder Trintus following with his clipboard.

“What do you think?” A strong voice asked from behind him.

Max looked over his own shoulder to see Nasta standing close by him, looking at the door Harry had left through curiously.

“He certainly is different.” Max answered.

Nasta nodded. “Very different.” He agreed. “I can’t believe he’s actually paying attention to the older dominants, it’s refreshing.”

“That’s one way to put it.” Max snorted.

“Stop picking boys!” Cassander broke in. “I’m in with a chance here! If the cutie likes that ugly Greek Demetrius then he’ll like me more! Twenty years younger or not!”

The day continued on, Harry picking at random this time, but he only chose older dominants, he wasn’t even looking at anyone younger than forty, which meant that he was once again excluded, but it was nice to see his Uncle Nicodemus chosen, Harry came back pink cheeked, glaring at Nico’s back as his Uncle found them again grinning widely.

“What did you do?” Kyra demanded.

Nico grinned wider and slapped hands with his twin brother Ceph. 

“If you’ve damaged our chances I’ll slaughter the both of you!” Kyra hissed.

“When do we get a turn?” One of the very young dominant’s burst out impatiently, but not unkindly, Max hadn’t seen him before, so he must have been brand new, as in his inheritance was very recently.

Harry smiled kindly to the young boy and took his hand before pulling him off and Max’s heart sunk. Harry was back to the baby dom’s, this time baby dom’s that were younger than he was.  
The day was moving so slowly and it was with a stuttered heart and a moment to process that Harry had actually called his name. His Uncle gave him a shove and he went to greet Harry. He couldn’t believe he had actually been chosen. Out of a hundred dominants, only twelve had been chosen to accompany Harry, he was number thirteen and he’d never consider the number as unlucky ever again, in fact it was his new favourite number.  
Harry was cocking his head at him cutely, Max could see he was thinking hard, a spark of recognition in his eyes and Max wondered if Harry was remembering the ginger biscuits he had given to him. He hoped so.

“Hi.” Harry greeted him shyly and Max couldn’t help but grin easily as he shook Harry’s hand, before laying two gentle kisses to it, one on the back of his hand, the other on that curled palm.

“Hello. I’m Maximilius Diadesen Maddison. Thirty-one, with the mental age of a twelve year old.” 

Harry chuckled at him and Max felt accomplished at making Harry feel comfortable and happy, he held his hand out, hoping that Harry would take it and felt like doing a victory dance when Harry happily accepted the hand that was held out to him.

“I must say congratulations to you for getting under the skin of that little snot Dominic. He hasn’t stopped bragging to everyone whether they’ll listen or not about how he’s going to have you for a mate just because his grandfather is an Elder.” Max informed the young sixteen year old and had the pleasure of seeing those eyes darken with anger. Max wondered if Harry’s eyes darkened in lust also and softly groaned as he twitched in his boxers.

Harry’s fist clenched before he breathed and smiled.

“He needs to take a rain check.” Harry answered seriously. “If he thinks I’ll let him be my mate just because his grandfather is an Elder he seriously needs a reality shift. I’ve told him to leave several times.”

Max chuckled deeply, his voice lust roughened and Harry shivered, his pupils blowing wide and his face turning pink cheeked. Max felt so elated; Harry was responding to him, he was in with a very good chance if Harry found him sexually appealing.

“I…um…what do you like doing?” Harry stammered, his face going red as Blaise chuckled from behind them.

“Eating and cooking. I eat a lot of food, so you can guarantee if you accept me as a mate that we'll be visiting restaurants at least twice a week and the rest of the time I'll probably be cooking for you and Blaise. Though it might not seem like it at first glance, I do have a quiet side.” Max shrugged a massive shoulder and grinned down at Harry.

“I like reading in front of fires. I’m not a huge fan of the cold and I’m more reclusive in the winter months.” Max confided.

“I like sleeping or lying down in front of fires, Blaise is the one who reads in front of them, personally I don’t see how you can read in front of a fire because all it does it make me sleepy.” Harry grinned.

“His favourite thing to do is to lay on me as I read, we have a bear fur in front of our fire and if I can’t find Harry, I go looking on the bear fur, because nine times out of ten that’s where he is, sleeping peacefully.” Blaise told him and Max was surprised that the other dominant was actually speaking to him, but Max threw his head back and laughed with Blaise all the same. 

“So Maximilius, do you have a job?” Harry asked him, pink cheeked still. 

“Lord almighty, call me Max, you sound like my Mother.” Max stated with a roguish grin, trying to show Harry that he wasn’t a serious old man. “Yeah I have a job, I work for a potions company that makes and sells potions to stock hospitals and small chemists all over Britain.”

“You’re a Potions Master?” Harry asked impressed and Max swelled with the awe in those green eyes. He loved his job just a little bit more than he had a moment ago.

“Damn right I am. I worked hard to get my Mastery in potions, achieved it when I was twenty-six, it isn’t the record, but I'm still one of the youngest to do it.”

“That’s impressive.” Blaise stated, moving up beside him and Max felt himself swell in pride a little bit more, if he could impress them both he had an amazing chance for being the second mate. “It might not be the record but doing a ten year mastery in six years is still an accomplishment.”

“How do you know he started his Mastery at twenty?” Harry asked, fretting that he might have missed something he had said and Max grinned and chuckled along with Blaise who pressed a reassuring kiss to Harry’s cheek. 

“I know because a witch or wizard is not allowed to start a Potions Mastery until they are twenty years of age.”

“Oh.” Harry blushed a bit again

“You’re adorable.” Max told him sincerely, bending down to kiss his hair.

Max was surprised that Blaise actually let him kiss his mate so informally, but Blaise was grinning at them both and moved over to them to throw an arm over Harry’s shoulder, his and Blaise’s arms crossing on Harry’s back.  
Max left the two confident that he had made a brilliant impression and not even his Uncles could ruin his euphoria.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

The scent of blood made him pick his head up and look around. Dracken blood. It was too thick for it to be anything other than a death, but he couldn’t find any dead Drackens or a fight.  
Blaise walked in then, Harry looking forward, his face so pale he looked sick and that worried, horrified gleam in his eyes pulled on every protective string he had as his wings flared out and twitched to protect Harry. Blaise was dragging a body behind him, his head almost severed from ear to ear and Max was impressed. That man was bigger, older and stronger than Blaise, but he had managed to protect his submissive and kill him, perhaps Blaise was a good choice for Harry after all, but he’d be a good choice as well, he’d protect them both.

“What is the meaning of this?” Elder Getus demanded, standing up on the other side of the room.

“If anyone, and I mean anyone, tries to take Harry from me, this is what you’ll get.” Blaise hissed threateningly, hauling the dead man up with a show of absolute strength before slamming him onto the dining table, knocking food, plates, bowls and glasses everywhere. Max thought it was a bit dramatic, but as dominant’s went skidding and tumbling away from the body, Max applauded him, he had frightened some of the dominants and they wouldn’t want to cross Blaise now, baby dominant or not.

“Harry are you well dear one?” Elder Trintus asked, scurrying over to him and checking him over.

“I’m fine, just a bit shaken up. He…he attacked us as we…as we were…” Harry trailed off with a pink blush and held tighter to Blaise, who was glaring at everyone and Max glared at the dead body. How dare that bastard think he could watch Harry having sex with his mate! In such a vulnerable and defenceless moment where he was letting himself go with his mate. It was disgusting!

“Well one more off the list is what I say. When are you going to pay me any attention?”

Harry turned his head to stare incredulously at Dominic and Max followed his eyebrows lowered over sapphire blue eyes, who for all the acknowledgement he showed, was acting like there wasn’t a dead body on the table in front of him.  
Harry unwrapped his legs from Blaise and stood on the floor, Blaise stooping down to make sure he was actually on the floor before he let go. Harry stalked up to Dominic and stood in front of him, leaning into him.

“What did you just say?” He hissed in a deadly tone and Max shivered in lust. Harry was sexy when he was angry and being dangerous.

“When am I going to get my turn?!” Dominic answered back, stressing his words as if he thought Harry was stupid and Max mentally rubbed his hands together, this was going to be good, he had learnt that Harry was not a soft, weak person. He was strong and he had a very big temper which when riled, you didn’t want to be anywhere near him.

Harry snarled as he leant back, before throwing his fist forward, jamming his clenched fist into Dominic’s nose, listening to the satisfying crack as it broke under the pressure.  
Max let out a happy yell and cheered Harry on as he launched his knee into Dominic’s gut and brought an elbow down on his back, before kicking him repeatedly as he lay curled up on the floor, trying to protect himself.  
Blaise went and grabbed Harry around the waist and Harry turned immediately, arm up, claws out, ready to swipe off half the person’s face, before Harry recognised his mate and buried himself in his mate’s neck.   
Blaise held Harry’s head into the juncture between his neck and shoulder, forcing him to breathe in his scent, which calmed his submissive immediately, Marianna had taught her son some tricks then. Blaise pulled Harry away from the pathetic, whimpering form of Dominic who was being fawned over by his grandfather.

“No one demands anything from me.” Harry told Blaise, but in the stunned silence nearly every Dracken there heard him, including Max, who made a mental note to never piss Harry off or to ever demand he do something. “I told him several times that I didn’t want him here and that he was never going to be my mate, I told him and he didn’t leave.”

“I know mio amore.” Blaise answered his voice thick with accent under his stress. “You can do what you please in this house. He refused to leave even after being rejected; it was within your rights to attack him for his outburst.”

“Come along dearest.” Elder Trintus chided, appearing at Harry and Blaise’s elbows and shooing them into the little room off of the common room, which was opposite the dining hall.

Max let out a breath as the security dominants removed the body from the table and went to dispose of it at the Counsel Halls, where his family would collect the body.  
Max turned to his Uncles and Aunt and breathed out a shaky breath that was part laugh.

“He’s brilliant isn’t he?” He said even as some dominants around started complaining about the ‘strong submissive’ and how it wasn’t right that he had taken out a dominant himself and that his mate must be weak to leave his mate to protect himself.

“I’d rather a submissive who could protect themselves, at least enough for me to reach them if they were in any trouble.” The familiar voice of Nasta came through and Max grinned at him.

“Me too. I don’t want a submissive that’ll lie there and let another dominant do anything they want until I can get there to help. I want to see some fight!”

“I think it’s disgusting.” One dominant cut in. “To see such a violent submissive turns me right off, but I’ll still go for him, he is Harry Potter after all, anyone who can mate to him has it made for life! But such a public display, against the grandchild of an Elder no less, he should be punished publically.”

Max snorted at the baby dominant, who was about eighteen and probably thought he knew it all.

“This is Harry’s meeting.” Nasta said dismissively. “He has every right to defend his honour at his own meeting.”

“Even if it wasn’t his meeting he can defend his honour.” Max snarled. “If any dominant says those vile things to him of course he can attack them, I would.”

Elder Getus looked directly at him and Max held his stare and pulled the corner of his mouth back in a snarl. He couldn’t help but think that the Elder had heard his comment and didn’t particularly like it.

\---------------------------------------------------- X

Max slammed his hands through the walls of his house and let out a wordless yell of rage, a hint of distress climbing his throat, which he disgustedly realised, would alert his Father to his current state and location. He didn’t want anyone to see him, he didn’t want comfort or placating or to calm down, he wanted to rage in peace, to break everything within reach.  
His Dads were both there within minutes as he was putting his large, heavy kitchen table through his window, taking part of the brick wall with it.

“Maximilius Diadesen Maddison!” His Father yelled and at once all anger slipped from him, leaving him feeling weak, shaky and upset.

He slipped to his knees and sobbed, holding his face in his hands. He had been in with a real chance of getting a, actual mate, a mate all for his own to love and care for, to have children with and one jealous, spiteful Elder had ruined his chances with one sentence. He had been banished from Harry’s meeting and was forbidden to contact him.  
His Dad Richard was there then, holding him, soothing him, pulling his head into his shoulder and smoothing his hair back, shushing him as his shoulders shook violently from the force of his sobs. How could he have been so stupid as to leave his Aunt and Uncles? Why did he go wandering on his own? How could he have lost Harry this way? Sweet, adorable Harry who was possibly the most perfect submissive in the history of submissive Drackens! 

“What happened? Your Uncles are usually back from a meeting before you.”

“He…he…” Max broke into a sob and worked hard to control his breathing so he could speak, surely his Father could help, it was forbidden to mess with a submissive meeting, surely he could get him back into Harry’s meetings, but would it already be too late?

“Deep breaths Max.” Richard soothed, still stroking his hair comfortingly.

Myron slid to his knees beside them with a groan.

“I’m getting too old for this.” He grumbled as he wrapped both his arms around his Husband and son, laying a kiss to Max’s temple. “What happened Max? Did the submissive send you away?”

Max shook his head. “I was banished by an Elder.” He choked out and there was outrage from his Dads.

“What did you do?” Myron asked in shock. “A dominant is only banished by an Elder for serious offences.”

“It was Elder Getus; he banished me because I was actually in with a chance!” Max sobbed. “Because the submissive hated his grandson. He’s banishing all the top contenders. I could have had a mate! A family.”

His Dad was up and gone as he finished, leaving him in the kitchen with his Dad Richard, who was comforting him and calming him down.

“Shush Max, everything will be alright. We’ll sort this out. Elder Getus will be stripped of his status for this, you don’t need to worry. So tell me about this submissive, is she cute?”

“He.” Max answered calming down and smiling as he thought of Harry. “He’s gorgeous Dad. Jet black hair, bright green eyes, a stunning smile and he’s so perfect. He’s sweet and kind, he’s strong and opinionated. He’s the most perfect submissive ever!”

“Well, we always knew you preferred men, is this a biased opinion?”

Max shook his head strongly. “No. Every dominant wants him so badly, he already picked a baby dom for a mate, Marianna Lychorinda’s son Blaise, but he needs a second one, maybe even a third! He’s so powerful Dad and I want him!”

“Hush now. Your Dad has gone to sort it out; an Elder isn’t allowed to abuse their power like this. Strictly speaking Elder Getus shouldn’t even be there with his grandson in the running.”

“What a snot that grandson is as well, he’s trying to demand all Harry’s attention, trying to force himself on him, but Harry punched him in the face, broke his nose and then beat the shit out of him!”

Richard laughed. “Almost makes me wish I was unmated, just so I could see that.”

Max allowed himself to snuggle into his Dad. No one was there to see him and though his Dad was a loud mouth, not even he would say anything about it to anyone else and he really needed some comfort ad reassurance right about now.

“Oh Max.” Richard sighed, wrapping him in tighter. “You don’t need to worry; your Dad will sort everything out and take a few heads while he’s at it.”

“I know, but I can’t help but think it’s a bit too late. What if Harry only needs two mates and before I get back he chooses his second mate or while I’m gone he gets closer to another dominant? He’s been eyeing up Demetrius and Delericey.”

“Arsenio Demetrius? Max he’s forty-two with greying hair and facial scarring, surely this little sixteen year old would prefer you? As for Delericey, who wants that sullen, sad looking man over you? A gorgeous, fun loving young man, who is strong, powerful, has a record breaking wingspan and is the best damned person in those bloody meetings! Nasta is such a serious young man, thirty-six and he acts like he’s sixty, what submissive wants to tie themselves to that?”

“He did lose his Mum and his sister.” Max defended a bit weakly, but he felt so much better for the reassurance. 

“Yes he did, but so did his human brother Sanex, but look at how he acted at last year’s meeting, getting pissed drunk on champagne and earning himself a public punishment. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aneirin so damned angry before, I thought he was going to beat his son to death, that or blow a blood vessel.” 

Max chuckled as he remembered the incident. Aneirin Delericey hated his sons drinking and Sanex had downed eight glasses of champagne during the first hour of being at the meeting, his younger brother Caesar had also been roped into the ‘game’ but thankfully Caesar could hold his drink a lot better than the teetotal Delericeys. Myron came back into the kitchen, his face tight with anger and his eyes soft in contrasting wonderment. He eased himself back down onto the floor with a groan.

“You could have moved to the living room while I was gone so I wouldn’t have to sit back down on this floor.”

“How did the inquiries go? I don’t think you should keep Max waiting, he’s hurting Myron.”

Myron tugged Max into his own arms and pulled Richard in to cuddle under his arm.

“Of course they already knew, Harry’s chaperone is Elder Trintus.”

“Kid couldn’t have asked for a better chaperone.” 

“Uncle Cassander was unhappy.”

Myron snorted. “He would be.”

“I can’t see Trintus standing for what happened.” Richard commented.

“Of course not. He went straight to the other Elders and all of the dominants can go back, but Max…Harry chose his second mate an hour ago.”

Max dropped his chin to his chest and tried to keep the tears from his eyes, but it was difficult. To know he had lost out once again. On such an amazing person, a male submissive no less. Sweet, wondrous Harry.

“Who did he chose? Demetrius? Delericey?”

“Neither, he chose a sixteen year old named Draco Malfoy.”

“Malfoy? Lucius and Narcissa’s son, but the Black blood is so diluted! It was a struggle for Cygnus Black to get an inheritance; the blood had been diluted five generations back! A second inheritance so far down the tree is almost impossible!” Richard breathed. “And through the Malfoy line as well, Lucius Malfoy’s blood has been as pure as snow for eight generations! That their son has a Dracken inheritance, hell that’s a blind punch to the face for Lucius Malfoy. How’s he taking it?”

“He doesn’t know. His son is keeping it all hush hush, though what he’s going to do now that he has a submissive, another dominant and another one on the way, then there will be the first child along in several months.”

“There’s still a chance?” Max whispered, hardly daring to believe it.

“Yes, Harry is now looking for a grounding mate. A very powerful little boy that one and an even more unexpected inheritance than the Malfoy boy.”

“Really, who is he?” Richard asked.

“Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived himself who ironically enough, took his Dracken inheritance from the very Cygnus Black who gave the Malfoy boy his inheritance.”

“Really? Surely the submissive Dracken won’t allow such a close relation to be a mate.”

Myron gave him a long suffering sigh and Richard pouted at him.

“Draco Malfoy is three generations away from Cygnus Black, Harry Potter is two generations away. They’re something ridiculous like third cousins through marriage twice removed. The Dracken won’t recognise them as related.”

“So I can go back?” Max interrupted the genetics lesson.

Myron nodded and Max grinned so happily and he set to straightening out his house and fixing everything up, grooming himself and making sure he looked perfect before he travelled back to Scotland and to Hogwarts to see Harry again. He was going to try his utmost to win Harry over, this was his last chance to get Harry, the dream submissive thought to only be real in stories and he had to beat over a hundred other dominants to get him.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------- X

It was mid-January before he got to see Harry again, who was settling in with his two mates. He was sat on ‘his’ rock by the lake and Max admired the figure of him with the perfect background of untouched snow, white dusted trees and the frozen lake.   
He wrapped his arms around Harry and the young boy sighed and relaxed into him, before his head fell to the side slightly and he started stiffening, he had thought he was someone else.

“Hello Harry.” He greeted gruffly, overwhelmed to be holding this gorgeous body in his arms again.

Harry turned around already grinning and pulled him into a hug.

“Maxi…” Harry cut himself off short when Max gave him a playful glare for trying to use his full name. “Fine, I’ll just call you Maxie from now on.”

“My Granddad calls me Maxie.” Max grumbled good naturedly, he had had that nickname since birth and it just sounded babyish, but if it was Harry, he’d happily accept it as his name.

“Well now I do too!” Harry said stubbornly as he threw his arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “I missed you! How are you? How have you been? How could you possibly think I’d send you away?! I wouldn’t have! I…”

Max covered Harry’s tiny mouth and prevented the smaller Dracken from speaking a grin plastered to his face at the knowledge that Harry had missed him while he had been forced away.

“Take a breath Harry.” Max grinned. “I knew exactly what the Elder was doing, it isn’t the first time an Elder has abused his power and it won't be the last. I had no choice but to leave, an Elder’s word is absolute. They have the power to control dominant Drackens to a certain extent during mate meetings. I was ordered away, so I had to leave, I was ordered not to see, speak or contact you in any way and I had to comply. I loathed myself for letting it happen, but there was nothing I could do.”

Harry snuggled in close to him and Max wrapped him up in his arms hoping to make Harry feel loved and safe.

“As for how I’ve been, well truthfully I haven’t really been doing much since I was forced to leave. Wallowing would probably be the best way to describe it. I just sat at home all day, didn’t talk very much and cursed myself for such a missed opportunity to have an absolutely amazing, kind, gentle and gorgeous little Dracken as a mate.”

Harry chuckled, and Max loved the blush he had caused as Harry twisted little legs out from underneath him and placed them on either side of his hips, which were about level with the top of the large rock. Merlin Harry was small in comparison.  
Harry shyly played with the decorative buttons of his outer robe, finding the shiny black buttons with a swirl of red captivating as he twisted them around in his little fingers. Max thought it was absolutely adorable, even more so as Harry seemed unaware of exactly what he was doing.

“How have you been Harry?” Max asked his voice noticeably deeper. He just could not control his lustful feelings around this gorgeous boy.

“I’ve been through hell and back and then went back to hell.” Harry sighed.

“Are you still in hell?” Max asked him seriously.

“I think I’m climbing the limbo ladder one rung at a time.”

Max chuckled at his comparison and held him so tight the air was expelled from Harry’s lungs, showing as a puff of white mist in the chilly January air.

“What’s been happening since I’ve been away?”

Harry told him the whole gruesome story and watched him as with every word his muscles contracted until his veins popped out and his teeth clenched until they grinded together. Max managed to control himself until Harry had finished speaking about what Dominic had wanted to do with him and went onto what Draco, his supposedly brand new mate, had done to him the very first morning after they had mated.  
After hearing how Draco had treated sweet little Harry, Max lost control and he exploded in rage unable to stop himself as he took a huge, deep breath and then let it all out in a long and loud scream that was deep and guttural like an animal. The harsh sound echoed for miles and reverberated through the icy grounds.   
Harry frowned sadly at him as he waited until he had finished screaming himself breathless. Max held little Harry so tightly as he sniffed and touched every inch of him to determine if he had any injuries. He just couldn’t help himself as he checked for injuries after hearing what had happened to him.

“That they even dare!” He hissed deeply.

“It isn’t that bad Maxie.” Harry assured him with a smile. “Draco was beaten by Blaise and Professor Snape and Blaise and Draco killed Dominic, I think they ripped his scales off of his wings and after gifting some to Professor Snape, they sold the rest to an apothecary, though I don’t know why.”

“Because that’s what the little shit would have seen done to your chicks.” Max informed and swallowed at the look in those emerald green eyes. Harry hadn’t known.

“What?” Harry whispered in horror, his breath leaving him in a pained whoosh.

“When those disgusting hoarders find a Dracken they strap them down and hack off every single wing scale, they’d steal our body scales as well if they weren’t completely smooth and flat so no tool can gouge them out. They drain the blood into buckets and cut out the heart, liver, tongue, sex organs and eyes. All are very valuable and are used in all sorts of rare and obscure potions, rituals; the scales can even be used in jewellery.” Max admitted making good on the promise that he’d made years ago, to never lie to his submissive mate.

“He wanted to do that to my babies?” Harry asked looking panicked and horrified. He made a noise like he couldn’t breathe and Max rubbed his back to get him to pick up his breathing once again.

“He would have scented them out at birth and handed the Dracken babies over to the smugglers, who would have kept the baby in a cage or a small prison cell, keeping the baby alive, but barely, then when the Dracken comes into their inheritance, they start the harvesting process.” Max told him with a sick thought to his baby brother Theodric and his Mum, who had been through so much.

Harry went very pale before he launched over the rock and leant over the side of it and vomited everything he had eaten.  
Max rubbed his back firmly, feeling upset that Harry had found out this way, that the horror of what would have happened was making his body shake in anger and horror, disgust on his face that anyone could even think to hand their own child off to one of those people. Max felt exactly the same and comforted Harry even as he took comfort from the boy being there.

“Oh god, no one told me. I just thought my baby would have been killed instantly, that was excruciating enough. I thought everyone hated Drackens and would kill one on sight. This…that’s too much to bear! I can't…I can't think about it! My babies! Tortured, suffering, harvested for potions ingredients.”

Harry was sick again as tears fell down his cheeks. Harry held tightly onto him and let him sooth him. Which made Max feel a bit more accomplished and prideful, he just wished it wasn’t under such horrifying conditions. It broke his heart to see those tears on those silky cheeks.  
Max nosed around Harry’s cheek and licked at the tears that fell from those stunning eyes. He kissed each closed eyelid as Harry sobbed and cried. It really did tug at his heart to see Harry so upset, he felt he had to do something to help, he had caused Harry these tears by telling him what would happen to his babies, this was his problem to rectify.  
He moved his nose down Harry’s cheek until his mouth hovered over Harry’s. He lightly pressed against those petal soft, plump lips and held Harry tightly, hoping to convey safety and love.  
Harry gasped in surprise and Max flicked his tongue into Harry’s mouth, ignoring the slightly sour taste that Harry’s vomiting had left. Harry clenched his hands into his hair and tugged lightly, wrapping his legs around Max’s thick waist.  
Max kissed more deeply when Harry didn’t push him away, running his tongue over every inch of that delectable mouth, savouring the kiss and the feel of Harry in his arms. Under the sour taste of bile was a sweeter taste, chocolate and fudge, Harry had been eating chocolate and a hell of a lot of it by the taste of it.  
They broke apart for air, Harry heaving in lungfuls and Max breathing deeply and evenly trying to calm his racing heart. He inhaled deeply, his eyes widening before he inhaled again. He pulled Harry to him and kissed him for all he was worth, mapping that mouth with his tongue, trying to push himself into Harry’s body through their joined mouths.   
Harry made a small noise and it enflamed him, but it was a noise for air so Max very reluctantly broke their lips apart so they could both breathe.

“You’re releasing mating pheromones.” He panted breathlessly as he recognised the musky smell Harry was emitting. “You are looking for a mate.”

“But I haven’t had my second heat with Draco.” Harry protested thickly.

“Harry you don’t understand, your Dracken is rejecting Draco because of his treatment of you, your Dracken is sending out pheromones to attract a different mate.”

Harry’s eyes went wide. No matter how Malfoy had treated him, he didn’t want his Dracken to reject the other Dracken. Max couldn’t help himself as he swooped down for another kiss from those plush lips but this time Harry struggled and Max let him go immediately still holding Harry around the waist, but adamant that he wouldn’t force anything upon Harry, even if it was just a kiss.

“I have to get to Draco; I have to make this right Max! I know what he did to me was wrong, but it wasn’t his fault! He was under the effects of that suppressant potion; I don’t want to lose him! Not when he still has a chance to prove to me that he can be a good mate!”

Harry shimmied off of the rock and landed with slightly bended knees ready to run off to the school to find his two mates. Max caught his arm and pulled him into one last kiss, he just couldn’t get enough of Harry’s kisses, which were a bit shy, lacking technique, but so sweet and passionate it made him throb painfully in his boxers.  
Max gave Harry a smile and a small shove towards the school, before he turned and trekked off towards the house on the opposite side of the lake. He was positive he had left a good impression upon Harry and felt secure enough to leave him for now.

\-------------------------------------------------------------- X

Max watched as Harry flew through the air on his Firebolt. He was so graceful and elegant, yet powerful and speedy, not to mention completely and utterly dangerous as he dived from a spectacular height, pulling out of the dive a fraction of a second before he plummeted into the ground, his knees skimming the blades of grass as he passed over them as the Ravenclaw Seeker wasn’t as skilled, wasn’t as lucky and she plummeted into the earth.   
Harry could definitely go professional if he wanted to; he was just so amazing on a broom! He could turn on a pinpoint, dive outstandingly, twist and twirl better than the pros and he had a fierce determination to win as he pushed his body and his broom to the max to win.   
The skirmish with the Keeper had him laughing, the Keeper hitting Harry with the Beater’s bat had him growling and hoping he met that boy in a corridor so he could hit him with a closed fist, to the face, with all his force behind it.  
Max laughed happily as Harry replaced his experienced Keeper with a young third year. The match was turning more spectacular as Harry weaved around the players, encouraging his team and teasing the substitute Ravenclaw Seeker with dives, misdirection’s and then finally Harry saw the snitch and Max cheered him on as the ball was centimetres from his fingers and two bludgers hit Harry’s body, one shattered his elbow and the other smashed right into his knee.  
Max saw the sickening pain on Harry’s face and wanted to immediately help him, but there was nothing he could do, so he settled for screaming in rage along with the Gryffindors as Harry clutched his broken arm to his chest and carried on chasing the snitch. It dived down and Harry followed, having to use his broken arm to stop himself from falling forwards and Max saw Harry go ghostly pale and dry heave on his broom as he carried on in steely determination to win. He had the crazed insanity to be a professional Quidditch player too.  
Max watched as that little bitch Brodwick bumped into Harry’s injured knee and he added the little shit to his ‘beat to a pulp’ list.  
Max screamed and yelled with the rest as Harry’s fingers closed around the tiny golden ball and Harry yelled happily in victory, right until the bludger smashed into his back, sending his already injured body flying forwards off of his broom and plummeting to the ground.   
It all happened so quickly, one second he was jumping up and down with the rest, the next there was a collective gasp of horror as Harry hit the ground with a sickening crack.  
Max went to visit Harry in the hospital wing later that day, the young boy looking so small and fragile in the starched white bed, he left his gift of Ice Mice and Peppermint Toads for Harry with a short, but sweet message and he brushed Harry’s hair back, kissed that smooth forehead and played the waiting game until Harry woke up again.

\---------------------------------------------------- X

Max was happy that he was invited to Harry’s little picnic to celebrate his recovery and release from the hospital wing, no matter that it was February. Nasta was there, Harry’s two dominants, even if Draco was still in his bad books for how he had treated Harry and then Henley, the little baby dom, joined them. Max hated how receptive to Henley Harry was, he couldn’t lose Harry to a third baby dom, he couldn’t.  
He glowered at the others and growled when Nasta started playing with Harry’s hair. Delericey just gave him a look, part smug, part withering snarl. Nasta was going for Harry and there was only one mate place left. They were in competition with one another now, long-time family friends or not, Max wouldn’t lose Harry to Nasta Delericey.  
Max went to sleep and counted down the days to Harry’s heat. Just after that, he’d go all out and leave Harry no choice but to choose him as a mate. He’d woo him so thoroughly that no one else’s name would be on his perfect lips.  
Max once again smelt when Harry went on heat and it was almost unbearable to remain away from him. He just wanted to go and claim Harry for himself, so he locked himself up and tried to control himself, remembering what had happened to his Uncle Benedict when he had given into his instincts concerning a submissive and took her against her will. He would be executed if he forced himself on Harry, he wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it to the sweet, loving boy he had come to love, but it was so hard to keep himself from going to Harry, he battled with himself to remain in his room, but when Harry started calling to him, he couldn’t stop himself from tearing out of his room and running faster than he ever had before to reach Harry who was calling for all of his mates, calling, almost begging, demanding, in his call, for them to give him a baby this time around. He slammed the door to Harry’s rooms open so furiously it bounced against the wall and slammed closed again as he tore into the bedroom and took in Harry’s naked, absolutely perfect body lying on the large bed.  
Indigo eyes looked at him as he approached, but didn’t stop him as he touched Harry’s sweat soaked body reverently. Silver eyes looked at him curiously, but also allowed him to remain, they saw him as another mate and he kissed and licked at Harry’s mouth and body, looking at those lust blown green eyes, the panting, the wailing, the mewling, he loved it and it tightened him until he was afraid that he would explode before he even pushed into Harry.  
Harry made a small sound, whether pleasure or fear, Max couldn’t tell, but he treated it as fear, just in case.

“Hush little love.” He whispered seductively into Harry’s ear. “I felt your call and I answered, you wish for babies, I can give them to you.”

Max was happy to realise he had been right, Harry was not only a wild cat in bed, trying to climb his body, pushing himself back onto him, but he was also a screamer, a talker with a preference for the words ‘harder’, ‘more’ and ‘oh god’, a biter and a scratcher as he let go of every inhibition he had and they both did everything they could to bring the other pleasure and Max had to close his eyes as Draco and Blaise joined in and everything was heightened and he realised suddenly that he had a mate, that he was mated. That he had Harry and with that revelation, his back bowed in orgasm and he fell to the side, leaving Harry mewling and writhing as Draco moved back into him, leaving Max elated, euphoric and excited for his future life with Harry.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Now this took some doing. A month and a half of work went into this chapter and it’s abnormally long for a Scaled Bits, so I hope you appreciate the excessive attention and length this chapter received between main chapters and other, shorter, Scaled Bits chapters. So this is the little peek back to the mate meetings, the only one I’ll be doing so don’t ask for Nasta’s POV next as Nasta wasn’t as interesting as Max, who had all his Uncles to entertain him, that shocking situation with Elder Getus banishing him from Harry’s meetings and then coming back and being included in the rejection of Draco and being pulled into Harry’s heat. So Max was a much better candidate for the SB chapter than Nasta.  
> Let me know what you thought of Harry’s meetings from Max’s point of view, I enjoyed it, even if it did take a lot of hard work and running back to the early chapters.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	19. Rant, Rave, Rage and Regret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is if course the promised missing scene from chapter 56 – Bitterness, that stays with Nasta, Max and Draco in the kitchen and doesn’t leave with Blaise and Harry to the bedroom.

Rant, Rave, Rage and Regret

Nasta watched Blaise leave the kitchen and turned angrily to Max, who was watching Blaise’s back guiltily. 

“Do you have any idea what you have done?” He demanded angrily of the taller man.

Max bit his lip, still looking out the door through which Harry and Blaise had vanished.

“Do you?!” Nasta prompted harshly.

“I think I have an idea.” Max said softly.

“He is not going to trust you Max.” Draco cut in angrily.

“It’s more than that!” Nasta snapped. He rarely got angry, but when he did…

“I’m sorry.” Max whispered.

“I think I’m the wrong person to be saying that to, don’t you?! You’ve used something against him that those beasts did when he was a child! Don’t you understand that?!”

Max snapped his head up to look into his angry brown eyes and he flinched from them as something clicked in his brain, something that had been trying to click when he had first had the idea of making the chili too hot for Harry to eat. His relatives had starved and tortured Harry with food when he had been just a child and now he had done the same thing. How could he have forgotten that? Harry was going to hate him.

“What have I done?” He breathed in horror.

“Oh, now he gets it!” Nasta spat spitefully. “You couldn’t have thought of this before you had the great idea of playing with Harry’s food? Couldn’t you have remembered Harry had been starved as a child and regularly teased with food he would have done absolutely anything for as his starved body cried out for any morsel of food, before you made his dinner inedible?!”

“I’m sorry.” Max repeated feeling tears well up in his eyes. Harry would hate him.

“Get on your knees!” Nasta demanded and Max was helpless to resist as the weight of the dominance bond took over him and he found himself on his knees in front of a standing Nasta, his head bowed as twin drops splashed onto the kitchen floor from his eyes.

Nasta circled him like a shark and Max flinched every time he touched him, half expecting a beating. He’d deserve it.  
Nasta went to his knees behind him and yanked his hair harshly away from the back of his neck and before he even had a chance to gasp or pull away, four sharp fangs had bitten deeply into the back of his neck, two on either side of his spine. Nasta bit so deeply Max felt his other teeth start to bite into his skin and he took the punishment without complaint, biting his tongue to keep from screaming at the pain, he didn’t make a sound, even when Nasta clenched his jaws around the mouthful of flesh he had bitten into, he’d deserve it and much more if Nasta decided to rip out that chunk of flesh. Nasta’s jaws clenched again, before suddenly, roughly, letting go of him and he knew the fang holes would not be perfect circles anymore, but ripped and misshapen.  
Nasta twisted him around violently and he looked half crazed, blood smeared around his mouth, panting and heaving as if there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air and those dark brown eyes spitting fire at him, he had never been afraid of Nasta until that moment and he understood that this was a man who would kill him if it would keep Harry safe, even if it killed himself as well to do it, he would still do it, because Harry came first. Harry would always come first as their submissive and Nasta would not tolerate anyone hurting Harry that much was clear to him now.

Nasta dug claws painfully into his shoulders, going through his tee-shirt and into his skin so very easily.

“You fix this Max! You fix this or I will and you will not like it if I have to step in and fix your mess!” Nasta snarled at him, his bloodied face not an inch from his own.

“None of us will let you get away with this.” Draco said calmly from the table. 

Max had almost forgotten he was here, but seeing him sitting so calmly at the table, just watching and not doing anything, that frightened him just as much as Nasta’s behaviour. None of them would let him hurt Harry and a part of him was grateful to them for that, he didn’t want to hurt Harry and what he had done today was inexcusable. 

“I’m going to fix it.” He said firmly. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean for it to go so far.”

Nasta bent forward and kissed him then, harshly, with a hint of those fangs nipping at his lips.

“You had better fix it.” He whispered dangerously between them before he stood up and left the kitchen.

“Do you want to have a go at punishing me?” He asked Draco, who was watching him still.

“No. I don’t like getting my hands dirty when there are others around to do it for me.” Draco said and that clear disinterest in him hurt more than any punishment Draco could have given to him.

“I…I’ll make up the bottles, the babies will be waking up for a feed soon.” He said, more to fill the silence than anything and he stood up, the back of his neck wet with cooling blood, but he didn’t dare wipe it away.

He made up the bottles in silence, well aware of Draco’s eyes on him, glaring through him, making him wish for a place to hide.  
He was grateful to get out of the kitchen as he carried the bottles into the hallway; he met Blaise at the bottom stair.

“I’ll take those.” He said coldly.

“Harry…I…I wanted to apologise to him, to you both.”

“Harry’s not interested at the moment. He wants to be angry Max. Let him be angry and then you can apologise and make it up to him, until then…stay away.” Blaise hissed and headed back up the stairs with the bottles.

Max felt like he’d been punched.

“I don’t know what you expected.” Nasta said from the doorway to the living room.

Max hung his head and he heard Nasta sigh, before he was pulled back into the kitchen and sat down.

“What happened?” Draco asked interestedly, obviously hoping to hear about how Harry had tried to claw out his eyes.

“Blaise snubbed him on the stairs.” Nasta said and Draco chuckled.

Max felt lower than low.

“Blaise is very protective of Harry; we can’t forget he was Harry’s first.” Draco put in mildly. “He had Harry before any of us; he’ll be the first in line to kill whoever hurts Harry, after making sure Harry’s alright first, of course. You can look out when he’s done calming and soothing Harry, he’ll want your head.”

“Okay I get it, I messed up.”

“Do you?” Draco growled then, glaring at him. “Do you really get what you’ve done? How you have almost torn our family apart? After everything, all of us have given and put into this relationship, do you honestly get what you have potentially done to it?!”

“Yes and I’m going to fix it.” Max promised.

“Good.” Draco hissed.

A baby crying, tinny and staticky over the baby monitor sounded, it was soft and quiet, most definitely Leolin.

“Oh my little Leo, don’t cry baby, Mummy has you.” Harry’s voice cooed softly through the baby monitor and Max’s heart skipped a beat. He could have already lost the wonderful person that Harry was. What if Harry never forgave him?

He swallowed, he had to make it right and he’d start by apologising from the very bottom of his heart and soul and then grovelling. He couldn’t lose Harry, the very thought filled him with panic and fear. Draco and Nasta were ignoring him now, Blaise was angry and Harry, how did Harry feel about him now? He couldn’t live without them; he needed to gain their trust back, not just Harry’s. He wanted, needed, all of their love, he loved them all, how could he have done something like this?  
Harry’s scream came through the baby monitor, high and lingering, Draco upturned the chair in his haste to leave the kitchen, Nasta bolted after him and Max accidentally put his hand and arm through the table top as he hefted himself to his feet and followed just behind them. Harry needed them, but little did he know exactly how Harry would need them that night.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The rest is written history! As we well know from chapter 56. So Nasta went psycho dominant and Draco reverted to Malfoy head games. Blaise was just angry and Harry thoroughly enjoyed his night and all was forgiven in the morning, though the lost trust will be gained back over time.  
> I believe that’s all, just another thank you for reading and reviewing because I appreciate it a lot!
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	20. The Little Things In Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedication: To Kelly, who wanted more dominant bonding. I hope this helps.

The Little Things in Life

Blaise sighed, almost groaned really, as Nasta strode into the kitchen after his shower and he tried to hide his coffee mug to no avail.

“That had better be tea in that mug.” Nasta said lowly, even though they both knew he could smell it wasn’t.

Blaise didn’t say anything as he continued trying to translate Cægan Æðelræd Bealusearu, keeping a hold on his coffee so Nasta couldn’t take it from him and tip it down the sink again.

“I’ve told you a hundred times how damaging coffee is to your health.” Nasta scowled as he pressed against his back and tried to wrestle the mug from him.

Blaise gave it up without a fight after a vision of it spilling over the priceless book he had open on the table in front of him flashed through his mind. It had gone cool anyway and there was nothing worse than cold coffee. He didn’t understand the concept of iced coffee and doubted he ever would like cooled or iced coffee; the enjoyment of it escaped him.

“What was this anyway, your third mug? It’s not the same cup you had this morning.”

“A few cups a day aren’t going to kill me Nas.” He sighed.

“There are serious health repercussions.” Nasta said as he tipped the quarter mug of cold coffee left into the sink, worry coming through his tone. “It causes anxiety, irritability, narcolepsy or insomnia. It will raise your blood pressure, your cholesterol levels; it can lead to iron deficiencies and anaemia, not to mention the gastrointestinal problems it can cause.”

“Nasta I’m fine, really.” 

Nasta wrapped arms around him from behind as he tried to focus on his translations without the aid of coffee.

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you Cariad.” Nasta buried his face in Blaise’s hair and nosed and mouthed around his neck. 

Blaise smiled and closed the book carefully, raising his arms over his head to wrap around Nasta’s neck, holding that head, and by extension that sinful, sensuous mouth, to his neck.

“You worry too much about everything.” Blaise said. “You’re going to make yourself sick. Sick with worry isn’t just an expression Nasta.”

“I worry because I love you all. You are all so important to me and I don’t want anything to ever happen to any of you. I want to keep you all safe and cherished.”

“You can always keep us cherished Nas, but you can’t guarantee our safety. Accidents can and will happen, we don’t want to think about it, but when the babies are toddlers, there’s going to be bumped heads, trips, falls, scrapes and bruises. Max is going to burn his fingers as he touches too hot pans because he’s an idiot, Draco is going to keep hitting his head on the headboard of the bed because he’s a twit, Harry will injure himself because he’s a clumsy little thing and you will always cut yourself shaving. It’s just little accidents that are going to happen and we just have to deal with them when they happen Amant.”

Nasta smiled at the French endearment and kissed Blaise’s temple, rasping his small growth of stubble against Blaise’s smooth cheek.

“I thought you had shaved this morning?” Blaise asked incredulously.

“I did. It’s growing in faster and thicker, if I didn’t think Harry would pin me down and hack off half my chin, I’d grow a small beard, just so I didn’t have to shave twice a day, every day and cut myself so often. I’m becoming scabbier than a mangy cat.”

Blaise chuckled. Harry hated beards and moustaches. A bit of stubble he liked, but he much preferred his men clean shaven, it was proved when he caressed Nasta’s chin and cheeks after he had just shaved, though he had stopped licking after Nasta had put on after shave without telling him and Harry had licked it off. He had walked around with his tongue half out for an hour before he said the horrible taste was gone.  
Blaise let out a breath and tilted his head back, looking into Nasta’s strong, gorgeous face, those amused hazel-green eyes looking back at him.  
Nasta gently kissed his forehead, down his nose, then delicately kissed his chin and his Adam’s apple and then kissed him so hard and passionately that Blaise was shocked into moaning and arching his back. His open mouth allowed Nasta to push his tongue into his mouth and that tongue stroked and licked at every inch of his mouth.  
They were broken apart by a baby wailing. Blaise groaned as Farren, who he was babysitting as he did his translations, squirmed and cried in the bassinet beside him.

“He’s dirty.” Nasta told him unneededly, Blaise could smell Farren.

“That’s not nice.” Blaise teased loudly. “He’s our second oldest son; you can’t call him dirty, what would Max say if he heard you calling his firstborn dirty?”

“Nasta did what?!” Came the shout from the next room preceding the formidable, angry form of Max storming into the kitchen.

“Why are you calling my son dirty?!” He demanded.

Nasta raised an eyebrow. “He is dirty, if you don’t think so, you can change him.”

Blaise grinned as Nasta placed the grizzling baby in Max’s horrified arms, he picked up his book and notebook of translations and let Nasta lead him out of the kitchen.

“But…but that’s not fair!” Max whined as they left the kitchen and Blaise chuckled as he went to secure the book back into the specially charmed case he had bought for it.

He went back down the stairs and into the living room, to find Nasta cuddled up with a sleepy Harry, Leolin and Calix in arms. Regan was sleeping, sucking on the pink dummy that was usually claimed by Braiden before his brothers and sister could have it, Tegan was in the bassinet next to him, awake, but her dark blue eyes were half closed and she was drowsily sucking on a grass green dummy, swaddled tightly in a blanket.  
Draco was on the floor, Braiden held up to eye level and they seemed to be having a stare out, before Draco moved forward and blew a raspberry on a chubby cheek. Braiden giggled happily and Blaise smiled. His only biological child. Their firstborn.   
He sat behind Draco, spreading his legs wide to fit Draco’s broad body between his thighs and rested his chin on Draco’s shoulder; he couldn’t reach the top of his head, Draco was too tall.  
Braiden saw him over Draco’s shoulder and gurgled happily.

“Da da da!” He babbled and Blaise smiled widely. He loved it when Braiden directed his babble towards him, even if he didn’t actually recognise him as his ‘Dada’ yet. “Ba ba!”

Blaise chuckled and nipped at Draco’s shirt with his teeth, pulling on the fabric covering his shoulder. Draco turned his head and kissed his eyebrow.  
Blaise wrapped arms around Draco’s waist and pulled faces at Braiden, who found it hysterical.

“La ma!” He cooed.

“Look Blaise, Braiden thinks you’re a llama.” Draco chuckled.

Blaise chuckled, which was echoed from behind them by Nasta, who was carding fingers through a sleeping Harry’s hair, supporting both Leolin and Calix now.

“Ca ba ba!” 

“That was a new one.” Draco said aloud what they were all thinking.

“Ca ma!”

“Yes Braiden, you do love the camera, or rather that would be the camera loves you.” Blaise grinned. 

They had so many photos of Braiden now they had to start a second baby book for him, Harry really did go overboard with the photos, not that any of them were complaining, they’d likely need new baby books for the quintuplets soon as well. Max was thinking of buying Harry a real professional camera for his birthday to aid him in his quest to plaster every inch of free wall they had with photographs and filling the bookshelves with photo albums.

“Ooo boo!” 

“He’s on a roll today, should we wake Harry? He’ll be distraught he’s missed this much.” Max commented as he put a freshly cleaned Farren into a bassinet, plugging up his mouth with a bright yellow dummy.

Nasta handed Leolin off to Max, who cuddled the tiny baby in his massive arms carefully and delicately.  
Nasta shook Harry gently and called to him softly. Harry made a soft humming noise.

“Wake up love, you’re missing Braiden developing.”

It took a moment or two for those words to sink in before Harry’s eyes snapped open and he sat up woozily, looking around blearily for Braiden. Draco stood up with him and sat next to Harry, trying to coax the baby into saying his new words again, leaving Blaise to heft himself up onto the second settee, next to Max and he bent over his lap to kiss Leolin, before stretching out, pillowing his head on those large, heavily muscled thighs and curling his knees up to fit on the settee without hanging off of it and watching his family cuddle and coo over their six children and one another as Draco wound up Harry by calling him a cute, fluff head, he stopped when Harry threatened to shave his own head bald and permanently spell the hair to Draco’s face.   
Blaise chuckled at them, trying to ignore the way the hair on the back of his neck stood up on end as Max massaged his scalp and brushed thick fingers through his hair.  
Braiden fell asleep soon after showing Harry his new words and Harry carried all of the babies to bed, coming back down with a baby monitor in hand before snuggling up with Draco.  
Blaise twisted onto his back and looked up at Max’s gorgeous blue eyes. Really they had eyes of nearly every colour and a gene pool that made every eye colour, perhaps that was why Harry had chosen them all, their unique eye colours and what those colours brought to the gene pool.  
Harry had those gorgeous emerald coloured eyes, Nasta a strange mix of hazel, green and gold, Draco had silver eyes, but through him any child of his could have grey or light blue eyes, he himself had purple eyes and Max had those stunning dark blue eyes, but through him, any child of his could have black eyes as well as any shade of the medium to darker blues, coupled with their range of hair colours, their children would all be stunning.

“I’m going to take sleepy, fluff head to bed.” Draco said quietly.

“You’d better not let him hear you say that, you’d look terrible with his jet black hair spelled to your face.” Blaise teased softly.

Draco smiled at him and winked as he eased a sleeping Harry into his arms and carried him up the stairs to their bedroom, leaving Blaise to snuggle into Max’s warmth. Max was always warm, he was so big and bulky that he just generated a lot of body heat and it made him so comfortable and cuddly.  
Blaise didn’t know how long passed before he heard Nasta come over and start moving his body from Max’s lap. He made a disgruntled noise and heard the two older doms laughing at him quietly.

“It’s bedtime Blaise, Max needs his rest. You I can carry up the stairs, if he falls asleep, he’s staying down here tonight.” Nasta explained and Blaise stopped fighting so hard to stay on Max and let Nasta cradle him, just this once he thought. Harry and Draco were bound to be asleep by now.

“Jus’ this once.” He murmured sleepily.

Nasta chuckled quietly and kissed around his face so gently that he smiled in his half asleep state. He truly did love them all and he was glad that Harry had needed so many mates, their relationship just wouldn’t work without all of them, each brining in and adding something irreplaceable to their relationship that was like a permanent sticking charm holding them all together. He had been a fool to leave, never again.  
He heard Max getting ready for bed and allowed Nasta to undress him and then redress him in his favourite pyjama bottoms, he was feeling lazy and sleepy and Nasta didn’t seem to mind as he licked and kissed around his bellybutton before Max stopped moving in the bed and Nasta handed him over to that wonderful warmth again. He cuddled in tightly to that warmth, loving the large hand that took the chills away from his spine and sides.   
Blaise felt Max yawn as Nasta climbed into the bed on the opposite side to them, closest to the babies. He reached behind him and touched a strong back. Draco was behind him, then Harry and then Nasta. He made a small noise before turning back towards Max and burying his face in that soft, muscled neck. It was as warm as the rest of Max and smelt like pine, which was Max’s natural scent and talcum powder, likely from when he had changed Farren, he must have gotten some on his hands and then touched his neck.  
Blaise fell asleep, happy, warm and feeling so loved in the bed that all of them shared, even if Harry did try to take it over almost every single night. He didn’t mind, it was just another peculiar quirk that made Harry, Harry. The person who had brought them all together in the first place, the person that they all loved so very, very much. 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: One-shot in one hour. I hope you all enjoyed this look into an evening with Blaise. More dominant bonding to come.  
> I think that’s all, the main chapter will be some when this week I think. If you were on Facebook, you’d know that and more though.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	21. Night Support

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is a missing scene from between chapter 57 and 58.

Night Support – Nasta and Harry

Ice cold, dead hands wrapped around his throat, pale white and slimy with freezing water, squeezing, choking him, dragging him into the lake of black, icy water he realised as his legs disappeared under the churning water and he couldn’t get the breath to scream as his heart pounded out of his chest, those hands squeezing around his throat tighter and tighter, making it impossible to breathe as he thrashed and tried to break the dead strong grip those hands had on his body, on his throat.  
Icy water touched his waist and he knew he was running out of time as he thrashed and tried to scream, tried to make a noise, any noise, but those hands clenched so tightly his eyes rolled into the back of his head as he was dragged under the water, every breath took in icy water and he thrashed and struggled twice as hard, feeling how heavy his body was becoming, how weak and lethargic.  
He was strong, he knew he was, but the dead were stronger and when he started losing focus, his mind blacking out, he knew it was hopeless, but the faces of several people flashed before him and he knew he had to fight, he had to fight to his last to be there for those people, they were important to him, especially the babies. He had to get back for the babies, but even as he used the last of his energy to fight back, he sank deeper and deeper into the bottomless black water, was dragged in deeper and deeper and everything was dark, everything was black and he couldn’t even bring himself to remember the names of those important people, couldn’t remember the names of those babies who made his heart swell with love. His eyes stopped seeing, his body stopped fighting and he died not knowing, or remembering, the names of those he loved, of those very special people.  
He shot awake in a cold sweat, the dream still vivid in his mind as his hands automatically moved to touch the bodies around him. Blaise who was sleeping curled into a ball, his back to him, Draco on his back in the middle of the bed, Blaise’s head resting on his shoulder, Draco’s arm under Blaise’s neck and wrapped around his back and beyond them, the strong, large, comforting presence of Max, who was on his stomach, left arm flung over Draco and Blaise’s hips, hand spread and limp on the mattress, most likely it had been on his own stomach before he had shot up in bed. Harry was not in bed with them, not even in the room Nasta noticed as he looked around the bedroom. The en suite bathroom door was open and the room inside was dark, still and silent.  
Nasta got out of the bed carefully, checked on each baby, whispering their name aloud as he kissed their little faces, just to affirm it in his own mind after the nightmare, that he did in fact know them.

“Calix. Regan. Tegan. Leolin. Farren.” 

He looked to the bedside alarm clock and it was only just gone three in the morning. He had only slept an hour since waking up at two to feed them and it was only another hour before Leolin would want another feed.  
He went into the nursery partially to check for Harry, but mostly so he could see Braiden. He had to touch his little boy and he brushed that thick hair out of the little face, smiling at the adorable picture Braiden made with his favourite pale pink dummy in his mouth. He sucked more rapidly as Nasta touched him, but settled down again quickly and he bent down to kiss Braiden gently.

“Braiden.” He whispered softly. 

He left the nursery and went in search of Harry, knowing he’d most likely be in the kitchen with a cup of tea. He was right, only Harry’s face was streaked with tears that he tried to hide when he realised he wasn’t alone anymore.  
Nasta ignored the attempts, sat next to Harry and brushed those tears from red rimmed eyes, feeling his heart break a little as those wide, watery green eyes looked at him with such fear and desolation, pleading silently, wordlessly, for comfort. He pulled Harry into his arms and rubbed the slim back with a firm hand.

“You had nightmares too?” Nasta asked him gruffly.

“You had them?” Harry questioned a bit self-consciously.

Nasta nodded. “Twice tonight. The first one I watched you being dragged under the water by the Inferi as I stood by, trapped and unable to help you, to reach you and save you and the second I was the one being dragged under and drowned.” 

Harry shivered in his arms and let out a little sob and Nasta knew that Harry had had a dream similar to his second dream. He pulled Harry to sit straddling his lap, chest to chest, his face buried in his bare chest, but while a very intimate position, there was absolutely nothing sexual about it as he wrapped his arms around Harry to give him comfort and security, letting Harry sob on him, his self-control being tested as he felt warm tears sliding down his bare skin.  
Harry took things further by wrapping his legs around his waist and squeezing him tightly, trying to do the impossible and slip into his body, Nasta answered the unspoken plea for comfort by wrapping his arms around Harry tighter and dropping his head down to rest his cheek against Harry’s hair, running his hands over Harry’s bare back and sides.

“I was so frightened.” Harry whispered as he pressed impossibly closer. “It felt so real Nasta. It felt like I was dying, that I would never see you or Max or Blaise or Draco or any of our children ever again. I don’t want to die.”

Nasta felt his eyes burn and he gave a comforting squeeze to Harry. “I won’t let you die.” He promised gruffly. “I won’t let anyone in my family die.”

Harry soaked in the comfort and let it sooth and relax him. Words they may have been, some would say meaningless or empty words or even lies, but Harry knew that Nasta meant them, that if Nasta could at all prevent it, even at cost to his own life, he would and it was that that comforted him, that even if some situations were out of their control and accidents and tragedies could happen, that Nasta would do his utmost to prevent them if he could.  
The two of them stayed that way, wrapped up in each other in silence until a sleep stumbling Max carried in a crying Leolin. He boiled the kettle and set up the bottle, scooping in the milk powder and turned around to wait for the kettle to boil, trying to sooth a hungry baby and almost had a heart attack as he saw the two of them looking at him from the same kitchen chair.

“Fuck.” He breathed, raising a hand to massage his chest over his heart. “I didn’t even notice you missing from the bed. I just thought you were sleeping heavier than normal, which is why I got Leolin. Why are you awake and down here?”

“Nightmares.” Nasta answered.

“What did you have a nightmare over Harry?” Max asked concerned as he stepped forward to cup his face and give him a comforting, loving kiss.

“The both of us had nightmares.” Nasta informed the other, making Harry feel insurmountably better that Nasta wasn’t trying to hide that he had had nightmares also. “It was about the damned cave, it was so horrific Max, what we saw there was appalling and it obviously left a mark on our minds for both of us to have nightmares over it.”

Max placed Leolin into a bassinet and wrapped his huge arms around the both of them, kissing them both.

“Is there anything I can do?” He asked.

“Tea?” Harry questioned hopefully and Max smiled softly at him.

“You can have whatever you want my love. Do you want one as well Nas?”

“Please.”

Max was thankful he had been too tired to check the water level for the kettle and had put far too much in for just Leolin’s tiny bottle. He poured the water into the baby bottle first and shook it, leaving it to cool as he made honey tea for Harry and green tea for Nasta.   
He handed them their tea with another kiss and fed Leolin quickly after magically cooling the milk with a spell, burped him gently as he had taken what he wanted, leaving a half inch of milk in the bottom of the bottle and placed him back into the padded bassinet.  
He pulled a chair right up beside the both of them and sat right on the edge so he could wrap them both up in a comforting embrace, knowing they would have talked about something that they had shared and he would find it difficult, if not impossible, to share in on what they had gone through that day, so they had talked it out together, given the therapy they needed and the horrors they had shared through, now he was here to offer them impartial comfort. He had been told what had happened, but because he hadn’t been there, he found it difficult to relate, he couldn’t imagine going through the horror they had that morning when they went to that cave to find someone they knew was dead.  
Nasta shivered in his arms and Max had a strong rush of love and protectiveness as he realised how much the nightmares had frightened Nasta and he was showing a vulnerable side that he hardly ever showed.  
He pulled Nasta’s head to his hard chest and brushed fingers through the chin length, jet black hair, humming lightly, quietly and soothingly as he tried to get Harry and Nasta to sleep.

“No. Don’t wanna sleep. No more nightmares.” Harry complained, even as he yawned.

“You won’t dream any more Harry.” Max promised locking eyes with Nasta, whose eyes widened as the message got across. “Neither of you will dream again tonight.”

Nasta stood up and kissed Max hard, trying to show his love and appreciation to Max. Max smiled lovingly at him and kissed him with a quick peck, before turning to scoop up Leolin and wrapped an arm around Nasta as he carried Harry, whose head was resting on a broad shoulder.

“I love you both.” Harry said softly, quietly, sleepily.

Max chuckled and pressed against those lips, Harry reacted too late and had only just pouted his lips for the kiss as Max was pulling away and he found it so adorable.  
They reached the bedroom and Max checked that no baby needed a nappy change and that they all had their dummies still and that they were all on their backs.  
Blaise and Draco had taken over the bed and Nasta chuckled sleepily as he placed a drowsy Harry down and watched as he forced his space on the bed by kicking Blaise over and slipping into the warm dip Blaise’s body had made and snuggling into the warm back in front of him. Nasta followed and wrapped around Harry and Max slipped in behind him, shoving all of them across the bed until Draco was on the end cuddled around Blaise, Harry was snuggled in the large dip Draco had made, still cuddled up to Blaise’s back and Nasta found himself in the dip caused by Blaise, kept warm by Harry and wrapped up comfortingly by Max’s large arms. He found his eyelids getting heavy, his mind curiously blank as he slipped off to sleep, and true to Max’s promise, neither he nor Harry dreamed again that night.

\------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I love this little vulnerable scene which shows that even big, strong Nasta can be afraid given the right situation. None of them are infallible, none of them are immune to human emotion and they can and do get scared and frightened. Dominant they may be, but even the strongest, toughest men have fears, because no matter who or what they are, they have emotions like the rest of us and I wanted to show that to you all and hopefully I got the emotions I wanted to get across through to you all clearly.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	22. Home Alone

Chapter Twenty-Two – Home Alone

Richard grinned widely as he kissed his beautiful Wife goodbye, hugging all three of his daughters’ and kissing their smooth foreheads, grimacing at the taste of make-up on his lips. He hated his little girls wearing make-up to cover their beautiful faces. If Myron was here he would force them to take it off, but fortunately for his daughters, Myron was still at work and he wasn’t strict enough to get them to remove the make-up, he didn’t want to upset them, he hated seeing his girls cry more than anything, except perhaps seeing his boys cry, because if Myron, Maxie or Caesar started crying, something was very, seriously wrong. He couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Max cry, Caesar had last cried when he had snapped his tibia in two places, one of those breaks had been compound and the nausea from the pain had left Caesar vomiting and his eyes streaming. Myron hadn’t cried since the incident which had left Ashleigh an emotional, distressed wreak, his throat a red ruin and their youngest son Theodric in a tiny white coffin. 

“Have a nice time in London loves.” He forced himself to say, ignoring his tightening throat.

Ashleigh looked at him with concern and his daughters all looked worried. He smiled at them.

“I’ll be fine.” He assured. “Myron will be home soon and I can take that damned potion.”

“We can wait until Dad is home if you’d feel more comfortable Daddy.” Alayla told him in all her seventeen year old innocence, worry creasing her face and Richard hated that he had put those lines there.

“Don’t be so silly baby girl, I’m a grown man and I know what I want, and that is for the four beautiful women in my life to go Christmas shopping in London for the weekend and damned enjoy themselves without worrying about me every moment of the day. I’ll be fine.” 

His hand almost rose unconsciously to touch his ruined neck, but he clenched his hand instead and forced a smile.

“If you’re sure.” Ashleigh dithered.

“You’re my Wife and my daughters, not my Mother.” He said firmly. “I am a grown man, I can take care of myself for one weekend, now you go have your girly weekend and us guys will survive until you get back.”

“Don’t forget to check on Maximilius!” Ashleigh reminded him for the seventh time. “I worry about him all alone in that big house and floo call Caesar! I don’t like the sound of his new employer.”

“I won't forget to call my boys, don’t worry about anything, just have fun! You have all of your cards and the emergency Portkeys?”

“Now who’s worrying?” Talia grinned cheekily.

Richard swatted her backside gently and she squeaked. He laughed and pulled them all into a big hug.

“If you don’t leave soon your Dad will be home and then you’ll be delayed longer, you know he’ll make you all wash your faces before leaving.”

That speeded his daughters up and they called out their goodbyes and started hurrying their Mother to the fireplace. Richard chuckled and shook his head as he waved goodbye. As soon as they were gone, he floo called Caesar and checked in on him. He was getting ready for bed as he had pulled a double shift and was exhausted. Richard found himself agreeing with Ashleigh, he was really not liking Caesar’s new employer. He called in on Max, who was lounging in his living room with a book in one hand, his other taking notes with a quill in the book resting on his thigh, a table filled with parchment and notebooks beside him.

“I see you put off your paperwork again.”

Max jumped and blotted ink on his page. He cursed and waved his wand to remove it.

“What would your Father say if he heard you utter that word?” Richard teased.

Max grinned at him. “He’d likely take me over his knee and spank it out of me as you well know, how many times have you been pulled over his knee for swearing?”

Richard chuckled. “Too many times, I think he’s gotten bored of it.”

“Dad getting bored of spanking naughty family members who deserve it? Never!”

Richard chuckled again. 

“What brings you by Dad? Not that I mind, I could use a distraction.”

“It’s distractions that have left you with that mountain pile of paperwork.”

Max grimaced. “I just hate paperwork; I just want to make potions, why does the paperwork have to come attached?”

“If you want your Mastery, you need to show how you made the potions and show that you understand what you are doing, not just shove the finished product under the Ministry examiners noses and expect them to know what variants and variables you used.”

“My examiners think I’ll have my Mastery by next year.” Max boasted with a shit eating grin.

“When did you learn this?” Richard said shocked and very proud of his oldest child. “Why am I just hearing this now?”

“I was going to announce it next week at dinner, but I can’t keep it to myself any longer! They think I’m a natural and that if I really get down to it and work my balls off, I can have my Mastery this time next year. I’m so excited! I can get any job I want in the Potions world if I get a Potions Mastery at twenty-six!”

“I’m so happy and proud of you Maximilius! Well done, you’ve thoroughly earned any and all recognition you get. Just keep up all the work you’ve been doing and get this paperwork done, show you have what it takes, because your entire family is behind you and we know you have what it takes if you apply yourself to it. Do us proud care bear.”

“Don’t call me that!” Max whined with a pout he had outgrown twenty years before, but it still made Richard chuckle.

“Get back to work and make sure your house doesn’t burn down around you, your Mother would have my nut sac.”

“Ah, Mum made you check in on me? Have you been to see Caesar, I called him an hour ago and he had just got in from work then and was stuffing his face because he hadn’t had a break in five hours, he looked half dead so I don’t think he’d be awake now.”

“I dropped in on him first, I’ll be having words with his employer if he forces Caesar to do anymore double shifts. Poor kid is dead on his feet, I can’t wait until I tell your Father.”

“I feel sorry for Caesar’s employer.” Max chuckled. “I’ll make sure I tell Mum you dropped in, don’t worry, I’ll be fine just like I always am. Go do whatever you have planned with the house to yourself.” 

“You’re Dad and I are going to have some fun.” Richard chuckled and winked and Max went green.

“I didn’t want to know that Dad, seriously I didn’t.”

Richard cut the connection still laughing uproariously, he loved winding his children up, though he couldn’t help the turn his mind made that he should have a fifteen year old son still living at home with him to tease. Little Theodric.  
Shaking off those poisonous thoughts, Richard stripped himself of all his clothes and went to curl up on the large bed he shared with his Wife and Husband, waiting for the latter to come home from work. Oh how Richard hoped Myron had been worked up and frustrated in work, or even better, he hoped that someone had angered him. He was in the mood for a bit of rough.  
He heard Myron moving around the house and he grinned as he stroked himself gently, moving his other hand to prepare himself, using the pump bottle of lube on the bedside table.

“Richard?” Myron called out. He sounded calm and normal. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t frustrated, he’d had a good day in work and Richard pouted. He had been fantasising about having angry sex with Myron.

“Upstairs love.” He answered as normally as he could, helped along by the soft croak in his voice caused by his tightening throat muscles. He needed that damn potion.

Myron took the stairs three a time, likely thinking he was suffering without the potion that Myron kept on his person at all times. He burst into the bedroom and stopped at the sight that greeted him.   
His young, lithe Husband with three fingers splitting himself open and a hand fisted around himself and wearing such a seductive, come hither look it took a delighted laugh from said Husband to break him from his transfixed state.  
He stalked to the bed, removing his clothing as quickly, but as seductively as he could as Richard’s eyes were glued to him as he walked forward and he made sure he was completely naked when he reached the bed so he could prowl across it unhindered to his gorgeous, lissom lover and he hovered over him on hands and knees, looking into those lust blown chocolate coloured eyes and he made a sound deep in his throat and dropped his torso to kiss those pink lips, swallowing the moans Richard emitted as he pleasured his own body with fist and fingers.  
He fed from that mouth with his tongue and lips, swallowing every moan and noise Richard made, he lubricated his own fingers and knocked Richard’s fingers out of himself and took over, loving the desperate, pleasured gasp Richard gave him as his thicker fingers opened him further.

“You’re such a cock tease.” Myron growled. “Always teasing, always aching to fill and be filled, always so desperate for a cock inside your body.”

“Only yours.” Richard replied with a cocky grin, which earned him a pleased rumble and a twist to those fingers which made his legs spasm through the bolt of pleasure it garnered. 

“If I ever smell another man on you, I’ll kill him.” Myron hissed.

“Good, because if you ever do smell another man on me it means he has somehow managed to rape me.”

Myron snarled and sunk his teeth into Richard’s neck in a quick, hard bite that very nearly broke skin, but threw Richard’s head back with a moan.

“Do not talk about other men violating you, it angers me.” Myron cautioned as he clenched his free hand into the sheets.

“Maybe I want to anger you.” Richard replied.

“You don’t have to anger me to have it rough love, you only need to ask.” Myron looked right into those soft brown eyes.

“I want it rough.” Richard said with a cheeky grin.

“Then you are entirely too prepared.” Myron smirked and Richard laughed, before gasping in surprise as he was manhandled onto his stomach before pulled up onto his knees, his upper body and head being held to the sheets with a large hand.

Myron didn’t even lubricate himself before pushing into his Husband in one thrust of his hips. Richard’s breath hitched as he found himself suddenly filled in such a dominating position which allowed for such deep penetration. How did Myron always know what he wanted?  
Myron waited for the minute signals that Richard was ready for him, the relaxation of the muscles between his shoulder blades, the small adjustments of his body, the evened breathing, before he pulled himself out and jerked himself back in and Richard moaned for him, his entire body quaking as Myron pulled those hips higher and planted one hand on the back of Richard’s head to keep his face to the bed sheets.  
Myron kept himself quick, rough and uneven, forcing Richard’s upper body down and pulling his lower half and hips higher until he was on his knees upright, he had to move his hand from Richard’s head to between his shoulder blades to keep his balance, but the moans and near screams he got from Richard told him his younger, smaller lover hadn’t noticed or if it had been noticed, it was much appreciated.  
Richard didn’t hold back any noises, he let go of every sound that was manipulated from his mouth by his lover of twenty-six years. Only Myron could interpret the little movements of his body and adjust himself accordingly, only Myron knew just what button to press at what moment to make him scream and tremble, only Myron knew just what he wanted and how to give it. No one else would ever compare to Myron now, not ever. His dominant knew his body far too well, knew how to play with him to have him begging and moaning and writhing. Any other man would pale so significantly to Myron now that sex would be worthless.  
Richard felt a gurgling whimper fall from his lips and tongue as Myron changed his position and moved both hands to grip his hips tightly, tugging his lower body higher, until his thighs were as straight as he could make them without his knees leaving the bed, he tried to make it more comfortable for himself by moving to his elbows as well, but Myron knocked them from under him with one hand and he face planted the mattress once more and it pulled a scream from his throat.  
Myron wrapped one huge arm around Richard’s hips and held them in place as he used his other hand to force Richard to the bed as his younger Husband tried once again to get to his elbows. He growled.

“Keep your face to the bed!” He ordered.

“Make me!” Richard answered back as stubbornly as he could with the edge of a moan to his voice.

Myron grinned, which was more of a snarl, and moved his position yet again, keeping his arm around Richard’s hips, but sinking lower on his own knees so he could grip that gorgeous pale brown hair and push his Husband’s head into the mattress, making sure not to cut off or labour his breathing, nor break his nose. He’d never forget when he had done that before on their wedding anniversary some twenty years previous. Ashleigh had been livid with him for catching and breaking Richard’s nose on the headboard, thus ruining the moment and their anniversary.  
He could feel his orgasm threatening to spill the longer and harder he pushed into Richard, so roughly, so very, very roughly and he growled as his hand slipped from Richard’s hair, tracing down his bent spine, over his side, glancing over his belly until Myron wrapped his fist around that steel length. There was a copious wetness on Richard’s belly and cock that made him grin. Richard had already orgasmed at least once.

“You’re such a salacious man.” Myron told his subordinate mate. “So insatiable and ready to receive pleasure. You love this.”

“Yes.” Richard hissed back to him and Myron chuckled so deeply as he yanked those hips back to meet his hard thrust.

“Why don’t you come for me love?” Myron asked, just knowing that Richard was holding out.

“I won’t go before you.” Richard answered determinedly, knowing how very much Myron hated orgasming before him or Ashleigh.

Myron growled. “You will!”

“I fucking won’t!”

The slap to his left bum cheek for the swear word startled a moan from Richard and jerked his own body back onto Myron, which made him scream.  
Myron upped his pace and the ferocity of his thrusts and Richard knew that there was no hope in hell that he could hold out until after Myron orgasmed, but he wasn’t just going to give in. He clenched his hands into the sheets and twisted them, his toes curled and the muscles in his back spasmed, but still he wouldn’t let that white hot warmth in his belly, that was arching his neck back unconsciously, spread further.

“Stop fighting it!” Myron demanded as he tugged on Richard’s cock harder and faster, feeling his own orgasm threatening to take him at any moment as Richard purposefully clenched around him.

“No!” Richard moaned softly, trying desperately to stave off his own pleasure.

Myron roared at his defiance and bit into him with fangs and teeth and Richard was gone. That small bite of pain, mingled with the insurmountable pleasure he felt, threw him over the edge and he orgasmed hard, every muscle in his body clenching and spasaming, the warmth in his belly flooding his entire body with white hot heat and throwing every last ounce of strength into a scream of Myron’s name that echoed around the empty house.  
Richard collapsed without Myron’s strength to hold him up and he felt his sweat soaked, slippery Husband roll off his back to lie beside him. He forced himself to turn his head to watch that strong, wide chest rise up and down rapidly with exertion.

“You’re getting too old for this.” Richard teased breathlessly.

Myron opened one black eye to glare at him. “I’m forty-seven.” He refuted. “Not two hundred and forty-seven.” 

Richard forced himself to roll over with a groan, feeling wetness slip down that backs and insides of his thighs.  
He cuddled up to Myron and pillowed his head in the juncture of Myron’s neck and shoulder, loving the arm that wrapped around him and drew soft patterns on his back.

“I can’t move properly.”

“Are you alright?”

Richard gave Myron’s concerned look a goofy smile. “Of course I am. Haven’t I proved over the years that I can take all you can give me and more?”

Myron grinned at him and Richard smiled back lovingly. He loved seeing Myron with a smile or a grin over a smirk or a stoic look or even a frown, which he wore often around him due to his personality.  
Myron pulled Richard in tighter and bent down to retrieve his robes and the bottle of potion within them; he propped Richard up and let him take a few sips, watching critically as he swallowed. His Husband grinned up at him and Myron bent to kiss that pouted mouth. Richard was such a beautiful man, inside and out, no matter his personality flaws and despite the mounds of scar tissue that took over his throat. He had been beautiful before and he was still beautiful now, perhaps more so now, Myron loved the childish nature of both his mates even if he didn’t always approve of it and he didn’t even see the scars on either of them anymore, they had all been through so much, they had survived through so much and nothing was going to ruin what they had, nothing would ever ruin what they had because there was no way that he would let it. He would take care of Ashleigh during her depressive moments, he would always keep an ear out for when Richard’s voice or breathing became tight and wheezy so he could give him the potion to allow him to breathe and he would always watch over his children. There was no question to it, he didn’t need to be asked, he would just do it, people thought him hard and cold and uncaring, but it was untrue, everything he did was for his family and it would always be that way.

“So…Max is buried under paperwork, Caesar will sleep for a week because he’s being abused by his employer and the girls won’t be back for three days…wanna fuck?”

Myron let out a chuckle and pulled Richard into a kiss.

“Why is Caesar being abused by his employer?” He asked with a raised eyebrow as they broke apart.

“He forced Caesar to pull a double shift and wouldn’t let him take a break during the last five hours so Caesar was starving and exhausted, he can only sleep for six hours before he has to get up and go back to work as well.”

Myron’s eyes flashed dangerously in anger. He stood up and pulled on his briefs and trousers, zipped himself up, pulled on his shirt and threw on his robe.

“You get food and bottles of water up here for provisions, make sure there’s enough lube for the weekend and put a jar of healing salve within reach just in case. I’ll go and sort out Caesar’s employer and meet you back here in one hour.” 

Richard watched the strong, formidable form of his lover and Husband walk out to throttle Caesar’s employer and make their son’s life easier and he couldn’t help but feel the love thrum through his body. He loved and was always amazed at how much he could rely on Myron to fix everything that went wrong in their lives, to look after each and every single one of them no matter what. He just loved Myron and he would always love Myron.  
Richard forced himself out of the bed with a groan and went to haul a six pack of two litre bottles of water into their bedroom along with some simple snacks and non-perishable food, he checked how much lubricant they had before going into their en-suite bathroom and to their medicine cabinet to get another bottle, he picked up two wash cloths while he was at it and fished out the jar of healing salve.   
He was ready and waiting when Myron came back home with a pleased, self-satisfied, expression on his face and that look let him know Myron had been victorious and it made his very blood burn with the heat of his love for this one man. He was going to enjoy this weekend alone with him.

“Spread your legs and lift your hips.” Myron ordered deeply as his robe slid back to the carpet.

Richard complied with a grin and a moan. Oh yes, he was going to absolutely love being home alone with Myron.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Such a naughty man is Richard. I was asked to do a lemon scene between Myron and Richard, this is the result, of course if you’re reading this on FF.net, you’ll be missing the actual lemon scene and need to go to AFF or Archive of our own, where you will find the full version of this chapter under the same title and author.
> 
> Thank you all for reading and reviewing! It’s all highly appreciated.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	23. Behavioural Issues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is a rather important chapter as it is a missing scene from the actual story and it will clear up a lot about Harry’s changing behaviour.

Behavioural Issues

Nasta sighed as he swirled the tea in his mug around in circles. The nightmares of the cave with the Inferi were getting to him, burrowing deeper and deeper still, but it wasn’t himself being in such a position that was bothering him, it was that Harry was also there. He was not a chauvinist or a male, dominant supremacist. He knew Harry could easily take care of himself and had done so well before he had come onto the scene. He knew Harry had been taking care of himself from such a young age that it was almost second nature to the seventeen year old to rely only on himself and put only the smallest amount onto others and he had tried to live with it, had tried to wean Harry into depending more on himself and the others, but it wasn’t working. Harry had gone through so much and at such a young, tender age that it had affected him deeply and showed unconsciously in his actions.

“Awake again?” The deep, rumbling voice of Max disrupted the early morning silence.

Nasta looked to him and sighed, looking back into his mug of tea as if it held all the answers he wanted.  
Max sighed himself and sat down next to him at the kitchen table, scooting close enough that he could wrap those large arms around him, resting his chin on Nasta’s shoulder, lips brushing lightly against a stubbled jaw.

“What’s going on in that gorgeous head of yours?” Max asked as softly as his deep and gruff voice could into the drowning silence once more.

“I…I can’t keep suppressing my instincts Max, I can’t. I want to care for Harry, I love him so much, but he won’t let us do even the basics for him! We’ve all been feeling it, I know we have. I have no idea why Draco has a hair fetish, but all he wants to do is brush Harry’s hair in the mornings and he’s denied, Blaise wants to dress and undress Harry, but Harry throws a fit, you get it easier, you like cooking and Harry lets you, or at least he used to, now he won’t even let you sort out a simple lunch without butting in and I know that’s mostly your fault, but the point stands, we’re his dominant mates, he should let us do something, anything for him, but he won’t let us. All I want is to take care of him Max, I don’t want him to have to do everything himself and it’s tearing me apart inside. My Dracken is tearing me apart.”

The kitchen descended back into silence after Nasta’s outburst and the oldest man let out a shaky breath and combed thick fingers through his black hair, tugging on it as if a small amount of pain would help.  
Max eased those fingers from their grip around the inky strands and clutched that hand in his own, thinking his words over carefully.

“Harry is not a regular submissive. We have known that for over a year Nasta, we knew it before we even mated to him. Even in the meetings he was so different to all of the others and not just because he was male. Harry has had such a hard and difficult life, those beasts that were his only living relatives treated him like an unwanted sickness. Locking him away, suppressing him, stomping on every tiny piece of creativity and brilliance that Harry showed. They ignored him, cast him aside, abandoned him with strangers so they could go to theme parks and on holidays, beat him, hurt him so deeply that it has scarred him mentally and emotionally and I have no doubts that they scarred him physically before his Dracken inheritance too. He needs time Nasta. Time to get used to us and to adjust, to realise that we are not going anywhere, that we won’t treat him like they did. Yes it’s difficult to supress our instincts, but Harry doesn’t see it as something dominants feel they need to do for their submissive, he sees it as us taking away his lifelong independence and of course he’d rebel against it and tell us to stop, change is difficult for anyone to accept, especially someone who has lived a life like Harry’s.”

Nasta tilted his head to rest it against the side of Max’s, curling himself into Max’s body.

“I just want to do something for him Max, anything without him going ballistic over it and shoving me away. I need to care for him, as top dominant I need to do it, but I want him to want us to do it as well. I know that is far too much to ask of him, especially at this point, but if he’d let me do anything, shoulder his book bag, let me carry him from time to time when he’s not half asleep or in need of comfort, let me buy him gifts without begrudgingly accepting them just so it doesn’t hurt my feelings. I’m not trying to make him any less of a man, I’m not treating him like a woman, I’m trying to show how much I love and care for him by doing little things, things I want to do for him, but he won’t let me.” 

Max squeezed Nasta tightly and kissed his hair, resting his cheek on Nasta’s head and rubbing his back soothingly.

“I know what you mean, you don’t have to explain yourself to me Nas, I know. It’s not about male or female, it’s about love and how you treat someone you love. To hell if I’d do the manly hug with any of my loved ones or the fist punch or slap on the back to greet any of you. I’d rather a proper hug and a loving kiss and it’s not because I see any of you as women, it’s purely because I love you and I want to show that love in an intimate way. Why must Harry be seen as a woman because I kiss him lovingly, but when I kiss the rest of you exactly the same, no one makes a murmur? If I want to cuddle and kiss Harry in public I will, just like if I wanted to hold and kiss Blaise, Draco or you in public I would, though Draco would likely sit me on my arse for daring to crumple his outfit with a hug.”

Nasta chuckled half-heartedly. “Draco is getting better. I ruffled his hair the other day and only got a small scowl for it.”

“Last time I did that I got a growl and an attempted bite, those pearly whites are lethal in his mouth.” Max grinned.

The two held one another for a bit, Max loving that Nasta was being so docile and letting him cuddle him and tuck him into his body, it took the edge off of his own instincts to look after Harry more. Everything would be alright soon, they just needed to give Harry some time to come to terms with everything, he had accepted everything far too quickly due to the number of odd and completely unusual things that had happened in his life and it likely hadn’t sunk completely into him yet that this was permanent, there was no turning back now for any of them, they had the rest of their lives together, they had plenty of time to give to Harry to allow him to adjust to his new, better, life with the four of them.

\------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Harry licked his lips and quietly backtracked to the stairs, sitting halfway up them. His mind was going a mile a minute and he didn’t know what to do.  
He had felt Max get up, that burning heat pressed to his front peeling away, no matter how quietly, had woken him and he had realised that both Max and Nasta were gone from the bed, he had gotten up and followed Max silently down the stairs and had been about to go into the kitchen when he had heard Max and Nasta talking softly together.   
He felt wretched and ungrateful for making them feel as badly as they did, he had had no idea that the things they tried to do for him were dominant instincts. He knew they weren’t trying to take away his independence, though sometimes he did think that they thought he was a delicate girl, though apparently that wasn’t the case. He couldn’t help thinking that way though. All of them, except perhaps Draco who had been as clueless as he was about Drackens, had firmly believed they would be mated to a woman at some point in their lives, regardless of their sexual orientation, hadn’t Max admitted that he had thought the best he was going to get in life was another male dominant with his female submissive? They had been preparing all their lives for having a female submissive and they got him instead, was it so farfetched to believe that they sometimes got mixed up and treated him more like a girl because they had grown up thinking that he would be a girl or was it just him? Was he reading too much into their actions and intentions when he should just enjoy the attention? Was everything they did just innocent instinct and he blew it completely out of proportion at the perceived threat to his maleness and independence?  
Harry buried his face into his hands and breathed in deeply, bending down to cradle his body with his knees. He loved all four of his mates and he wanted them to be happy, he wanted to care for them as well and they let him fuss over them, let him fiddle with their robes and ask after their health if they so much as cleared their throats or sneezed. They let him care for them, why wouldn’t he let them do the same? He snapped at them if they asked him how he was, shoved them away if they tried to fix his robes or hair and huffed if they fussed over him. He hadn’t realised this until now and he felt terrible for it. They didn’t think what he did for them made them women or weak, they saw the actions for what they were, warm and loving concern, why had it taken for him to listen to a private conversation by a door for him to figure it out? Was he that thick headed that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him or read those he loved to the point where he could determine if they were just being loving or trying to supress him. But no, his lovers would never try to suppress him; didn’t Nasta encourage him at every turn? Didn’t Max compliment all of his decorative cooking skills as he presented another perfectly decorated cake or cookie to him? Didn’t Draco praise him on his schoolwork, particularly his mark in DADA and didn’t Blaise inspire him to be his very best at everything he did? They were building him up, emboldening and motivating him to be the very best that he could, because they loved him, because they wanted him to be him, because they wanted to love and care for him in return.  
Slipping back down the stairs, Harry made sure to make enough noise so that the two in the kitchen knew someone was coming down and made himself stumble through the kitchen door.

“Harry? Are you alright love?” Max asked him, standing up.

Harry waved him away before he could stop himself and mentally beat himself over the head. It was that behaviour that he wanted to stop and he forced himself to take notice that Max slipped unhappily back into his chair and he and Nasta shared a look. Just yesterday he would have been oblivious to this and it made his heart ache to know he made them so unhappy with his actions and behaviour.

“I just needed a drink and I noticed neither of you were in bed, so I came downstairs instead of going to the bathroom. Are you alright?”

“We’re fine.” Max assured and Harry could see the petty revenge in his most favourite answer when asked how he was, because neither of them would be down here if they were fine.

Harry let it go and got a glass from the top shelf that he needed to really stretch to reach and filled it with water from the tap.

“None of the kids have woken up?” Nasta asked his voice thicker than usual which was a likely sign that he had only just held back tears at one point this night.

“Not yet. Braiden missed a feed, so it’s likely he’ll sleep until morning, Leolin is good for another twenty minutes and Draco handled Farren and Tegan just before I came down.”

The kitchen descended into a stony silence as the three of them ignored the obvious tension in the room as Harry finished off his glass of water and put the glass in the sink.

“I’m heading back up; don’t stay up too long okay?” He told them before heading to the door.

“Harry?” Nasta called after him, Harry stopped and turned around and looked at Nasta curiously, wondering if his oldest mate was going to bring up the conversation he had had with Max after all. “We’re heading up now, can I carry you?”

“Why?” Was the automatic response that he didn’t stop only because it would have been obvious something was wrong if he gave in too soon.

“I know you have legs and like to use them.” Nasta answered wryly. “I don’t have a reason Harry, I just want to.”

“Okay.” Harry answered.

“Okay? Just like that?”

“You asked.” Harry pointed out and held a hand out for Nasta, who stood up and hugged him tightly, before picking him up and settling him on his hip. 

Harry ignored every instinct that said he looked like a child being carried by his Father, every thought that this was childish and babyish and that he was a grown man with six children upstairs and let Nasta carry him without a word, without a murmur of complaint, because it was what Nasta wanted to do, because it made Nasta happy, everything wasn’t always about him and he’d have to learn that and soon if he wanted to keep his mates happy.   
Perhaps there wasn’t an alternative motive in everything they did, perhaps they really did just want to look after him and do little things for him every now and then, it wasn’t going to be easy, and he couldn’t change a lifetime of behavioural patterns in a week, but he could try and be a little less prickly about certain things from time to time, especially if there was no one around to see it or watch him and his mates be so childish and strange, because if it made all of them happy to act this way in private, well it was no one else’s business then.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Chapter 60 is taking a bit more time. I’m no nearing finishing it than I am to becoming Queen of the universe. It’s being difficult, though I can pump out Scaled Bits chapters one after the other if I care to try. I’m not sure what it is with Chapter 60 as I know exactly what I want to happen in it, though I’m having trouble with the filler parts of the chapter more than the main plot ideas. Just bear with me.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	24. Crossing the Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one’s for Liberty, who wanted more disapproving, healthy dominant Nasta with punishments. Happy birthday honey!  
> This chapter takes place between chapter 43 and 45. So in the summer holidays before Harry knew he was pregnant again, but after Braiden was born, so mid-august some when.

Crossing the Line

It had been a good morning, right up until he had gone downstairs and found Blaise gulping coffee like a man dying of thirst would gulp cool water. Nasta scowled heavily and moved to take the mug from Blaise, who allowed it, only for him to take Harry’s mug from him and start drinking that, a subtle sniff revealed that that mug also contained coffee and he scowled at Harry as well, who gave him an innocent smile.   
Nasta’s frown lines became deeper and he took that mug as well and dumped it into the sink before turning to Max.

“You need to stop buying coffee with the groceries.” He almost ordered.

“If I didn’t buy it he’d only go and get it himself.” Max refuted. “He’s not a child, he knows perfectly well how to go and buy a jar of coffee.”

Nasta growled and swiped a hand through his hair. “No more coffee today!” He snapped at Blaise and Harry, the former who wasn’t listening, the latter who looked a bit sheepish. “Too much in one go is damaging your health!”

“So you’ve said a hundred times. I just want my fucking coffee! I don’t care what it’s doing to my health!” Blaise snapped back and left the kitchen in a huff.

“Ignore him; it’s his time of the month, he’s been pissy since he woke up.” Draco told them distractedly as he read the paper with Max, mug of tea in one hand.

“It would be his Father’s fortieth birthday today.” Harry reminded them all softly as he cradled Braiden gently.

“Shit.” Max breathed. “I forgot.” 

“Blaise never.” Harry told them with one eyebrow raised.

Nasta blew out a breath. “I’ll go and speak to him, but no more coffee Harry.”

“Swear.” Harry replied back distractedly, going back to committing his son’s face to memory.

Nasta found Blaise in the bedroom, sitting on the bed with an old photo in his hands. Nasta walked to him and sat beside him, the photo showed a very good looking man with a slim build. He looked so much like Blaise that it wasn’t hard to figure out who it was.

“I’m sorry I snapped love.” Nasta admitted into the silence of the room. “And I’m sorry I forgot what today of all days meant to you.”

Blaise was quiet for the longest time, if anyone other than Nasta were sat beside him, they would have believed that Blaise was dismissing him and rejecting his apology, but Nasta was quiet and reclusive himself and knew all too well what the soft silence meant. If he wanted to speak, Blaise would speak, there was nothing left that needed to be said on his part.

“I wish I had had the chance to know him.” Blaise whispered oh so softly that Nasta had to strain to hear him. “I want to know what he thinks of me, how he would feel about me and my choices in life, I want to know what he thinks of Braiden, I just wish I could speak to him.”

“I know how you feel Blaise. I never had the chance to know my Mother. She died during childbirth. I wonder constantly about her, what she would look like now, if she would love me, approve of the things I’ve done and become, if she would like you and Harry and the others, would she like Braiden or any other children we might have? I’d advise you to ask your Mother, she knew him the best, like my Father helped me when I was curious about my Mother. It’s Harry that has it worst, he lost both of his parents before he got to know them and no one really seems to know what they’d think of his choices, he has Remus to turn to, which I’m glad for, but Harry lost his parents, then his Godfather and he needs someone who knew them all to help him through it, but Remus has that thing with Tonks and Molly was making murmurs about marriage and Harry didn’t even know, Remus is treating Harry like a child who can’t think or understand adult things, though I don’t think Harry realises it.”

Blaise sighed and lay back. “I noticed, he treats Harry with kid gloves and looks at us as if we’ve stolen Harry’s virginity and corrupted his virtue. Harry was sixteen when we first had sex; I was already seventeen, already considered a man, perhaps that had a hand in his behaviour?”

Nasta lay back and slipped an arm under Blaise’s neck, pulling him to cwtch into his side.

“Harry was of a legal age to give his sexual consent; I don’t think that’s it. I think that it was Remus was there when Harry was born love. Then when Harry’s parents died, he went away. He didn’t see Harry grow up, it must have been hard to see him as a baby and the next time he saw him he was already a teenager, there wasn’t that transition in between so its Remus’s problem that he sees Harry as a child still, not yours, so don’t blame yourself.”

“He needs to see that Harry isn’t a damn child, we have a son together! Harry is the most mature person I know! Sure he has his moments, especially when Max is around, but if anything happens, it’s like a switch immediately turns him serious. Sometimes I look at the expression on his face and wonder if it would make Dementors recoil.”

Nasta chuckled. “I know what you mean, sometimes that glare he wears looks like it could peel paint from the wall.”

Blaise laughed and turned onto his side. “I love Harry so much, I just wish he could have met my Father, that I could have met my Father and I’m sure you feel the same way about your Mother and Harry feels the same way about both of his parents. I couldn’t imagine life without my Mum now.”

“I couldn’t imagine life without my Dad or my brother, though I do miss Anga a lot. She was the only female role model I had growing up.”

“You were only sixteen when she died weren’t you?” Blaise asked softly.

Nasta nodded. “She was twenty and very proud that she had become a spell weaver. We got the visit from her manager, a spell had gone wrong and the resulting explosion had killed her instantly. We were told that she wouldn’t even of had time to register the explosion it was that fast, it didn’t really help at the time, we had still lost her, she was still gone in such a cruel way, but now I can look back and I’m glad she didn’t suffer or really know what was going on or that she was about to die.”

Blaise cuddled in tighter. “Really we’ve all lost someone before their time, maybe that’s why Harry was so drawn to us. Harry lost both of his parents and then his godfather and was thrown into the meetings only a few months after, he must have still been grieving. He chose me, whose Father was killed, he chose you, whose Mother and sister had been killed, he chose Max, who lost a baby brother and Draco, whose Grandfather died in such a way that it has permanently etched itself into his skull and left behind a fear so powerful that just the thought or mention of it terrifies him.”

“Harry has had a hard life, none of us can deny that, but I’m sure he chose us for more than just our family grievances, after all, nearly every dominant in that hall had lost a family member at some point, Drackens are vicious and violent by nature, many of them would have lost brothers, uncles and nephews in meetings over time, some would have even lost sisters, aunts or nieces. Be assured that Harry chose us all for more than our sad family history, you most of all because I don’t think you gave him much of a choice in the matter.”

Nasta nudged Blaise with a look and Blaise chuckled. “Instinct took over; I had no idea what I was doing and Harry had no idea what I was doing, we were even.”

Nasta chuckled. “Go and see your Mother Blaise. Spend a few hours with her talking about your Father, you’ll feel better for it.”

Blaise nodded and the both of them headed back down the stairs and Nasta saw Blaise safely through the floo.  
He went back into the kitchen feeling happier and lighter, only to see Harry was drinking a mug of coffee.

“I told you to stop drinking coffee!” He hissed.

“I didn’t want to.” Harry hissed back, shielding the coffee from him, holding the mug in his lap and hunching over it as he tried to grab it. “It’s warm and comforting.”

“One mug isn’t going to harm him Nas.” Max tried, but the glare he got shut his mouth.

“Harry, give me the damn mug!”

“Fuck off!” 

Nasta blew out a breath and swiped Harry’s hair away from the nape of his neck and laid his teeth over it. Harry tried to thrash and get him away, so he bit in just enough to get a mouthful of flesh and bit down gently, just enough to leave his teeth imprints, and growled, the sound travelling down Harry’s spine until his body went boneless and the mug shattered on the floor.  
Nasta removed his teeth and pulled Harry into his body.

“No more coffee love, I don’t want anything to ever harm you and coffee does have side effects.”

Harry curled up and nuzzled him, seeking reassurance after his punishment.

“I didn’t really like it much anyway; I only drank it to support Blaise.” 

Nasta rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

“You couldn’t have done that by drinking tea?” He asked stonily.

“Blaise was drinking coffee.” Harry shrugged.

“Blaise always drinks coffee.”

“It had a strange taste to it, sharp and burny, but it settled so warm in my belly.” Harry frowned. “I don’t know what made it different but Blaise called it an Irish coffee, not just a normal coffee.”

Nasta stiffened, his eyes widening and Max choked into his orange juice, his own eyes widening. Nasta passed Harry to a stunned Draco and went to the shattered mug of coffee and picked up the china, sniffing the contents closely and yes, now that he knew it wasn’t just coffee, he could smell the whiskey in it.

“I’ll kill him!” Nasta hissed.

“Why? What’s wrong with an Irish coffee?” Harry asked, looking at them all curiously and a bit alarmed at their behaviour.

“Irish coffee has whiskey in it.” Max told him.

Harry’s eyes widened and he cupped his belly. Then he looked to Braiden.

“I’ve been pregnant for so long, I forgot that I had given birth. I can drink alcohol now.”

“No you bloody well can’t!” Nasta growled. “How dare he give you something with whiskey in it without telling you!”

“It’s just a bit of whiskey Nasta, it’s not like it was poison!”

“You could have been pregnant!” 

“I doubt Blaise would have given me whiskey if he knew I was pregnant.” Harry dead panned. “He’s as protective as you are when it comes to the baby.”

“When I get my hands on him.” Nasta threatened as he paced in tight circles around the kitchen.

“It was just a drop of whiskey.” Harry rolled his eyes as he cuddled up to Draco. “Blaise is upset and he misses his Dad, he was thinking of other things, he probably didn’t realise he had even put whiskey in the jug of coffee he made, he was doing things on automatic when he woke up.”

“What’s worse than coffee and whiskey in one go?” Nasta demanded as he strode from one end of the kitchen to the other.

“Having one of those processed microwave meals?” Max put in helpfully, ignoring that it was a rhetorical question.

Nasta shuddered at the thought. “If any of you ever eat one of those meals I’ll kill you myself.”

“Like I’d let those vile things into my kitchen.” Max muttered.

\---------------------------------------------------------------- X

Nasta had managed to calm down; it wasn’t easy but being put on baby duty, looking after a newborn Braiden helped.  
He had put the baby down for a sleep, making explicitly sure that he was on his back, that his head was to the one side, that his little ear wasn’t trapped under the side of his head and that he was to the foot of the bassinet as he covered him over lightly with a summer blanket.  
He went into the kitchen after checking in on Harry and Max, who were reading together on the settee, he didn’t disturb their time together and instead just smiled at the sight and carried onto the kitchen. To find Draco in a pile of sweet and chocolate wrappers, eating a doughnut from a box that was almost empty.  
He could feel a tick going in his forehead and he let out a mutinous growl and Draco looked up from his current novel.

“Just how much of this have you eaten yourself?” He demanded. 

Draco raised a challenging eyebrow. “All of it. I get a sweet tooth now and then and Mother likes to send me sweets and cakes, she knows every few months I like eating a lot of sweet things.”

“You’ve ingested enough sugar to keel over a mammoth!” Nasta hissed.

“I’ll make sure I brush my teeth extra hard before bed.” Draco said dismissively, taking another bite of doughnut and going back to his book.

Nasta could feel his blood pressure spiking and he grit his teeth hard over the urge to just smack the back of Draco’s head against the table. Instead he grabbed the bin and knocked the contents of the table into it and glared at Draco, who glared back, a dusting of sugar coating his lips.

“I was eating that!” He snarled.

“You cannot eat so much junk in one go! Fine if you space it out, but one giant binge is going to clog up your arteries and kill you!”

“I’m active enough!” Draco retaliated. “My body is perfect; a broom shed load of sweets isn’t going to change that.”

“Yes it will!” Nasta refuted.

Draco snarled at him, bearing teeth and Nasta took it as a direct challenge and quickly grabbed Draco and pinned him to the table, laying teeth into his flesh over his jugular vein and carotid artery. He hadn’t meant to bring his fangs out, but the sharp pricks of his teeth stilled Draco’s struggling and he let out all the breath in his body, going still and silent.  
Nasta pulled his fangs in, gave a bite to the flesh in his mouth, before releasing it to see the indents of his teeth in Draco’s neck. He pulled the blonde up and into a hug and kissed his forehead.

“Enough sweets for one day Draco.” He said softly and felt the nodding of Draco’s head against the side of his face, before the press of lips against his shoulder made him smile.

“Can I still have dessert after dinner?” He asked.

Nasta smiled. “Of course you can, as if I’d deny you dessert when the rest of us are having one. Either we all have one or none of us do.”

Nasta let Draco go back to his book and sat down opposite him, pulling the morning paper towards him, with everything that had been going on today; he hadn’t had a chance to read it yet.

\-------------------------------------------------------- X

Blaise came home just before dinner and Nasta greeted him from the living room. He didn’t have to bring up the whiskey from that morning though as it seemed Blaise was very thoroughly drunk and he reeked of expensive wine, though the tear tracks on his face alarmed him, it wasn’t enough not to call him on his drinking habit of today. 

“How much wine have you had?” He asked, rushing to catch Blaise as he toppled over.

“Three bottles maybe. Mum kept calling for more as we talked.” Blaise giggled then, actually giggled and Nasta sighed. Blaise wouldn’t even remember their talk if he said anything when he was in this state.

“Let’s get you to bed.” He relented.

“I’m hungry.” Blaise pouted. “I haven’t eaten today.”

That gave Nasta a headache. Blaise had had nothing but coffee, whiskey and wine all day with no food. He was going to have to have a talk with Marianna, how could she let her son get into such a state?  
Nasta supported Blaise to the kitchen and almost had a heart attack as he saw what Max had actually made for dinner.

“Are you kidding me?” He growled as he watched Max load a plate with chips and greasy burgers, not even room on the plate for a side salad, not that Max had made one.

“Harry wanted it.” Max shrugged. “One meal isn’t going to kill them.”

Nasta swore that if he heard that line once more today he was going to lose it, he could feel the blood pounding through his temples and he had to clench his hands into fists to keep from lashing out, this was the last straw; his mates had crossed the line now.

“Do you think this is acceptable?” He demanded of them all as he dumped Blaise roughly into a seat next to Draco. “Gorging on sweets, drinking until you can’t stand, eating enough grease to paste wallpaper up? This is not acceptable!” He screamed. 

“It’s just a burger.” Harry pouted. “I’ve been pregnant for months, eating nothing but healthy food; I just wanted something greasy to eat. Just once.”

“You said that about the breakfast you made, just the once you said.”

“I did only make it once.” Harry pointed out.

“I was talking about the unhealthy meal.” Nasta growled.

“How about I make the healthiest meal you can think of tomorrow?” Max compromised. 

“Oh you are not even going to be able to sip anything without me knowing what it is tomorrow.” Nasta promised. “I’ve never seen any of you be so unhealthy in one day before.”

“It hasn’t ended yet, wait until you see what I got for dessert.” The smile on Harry’s face made Nasta’s stomach drop.

He collapsed into a chair and breathed evenly and deeply, but the grease from the food he was supposed to eat was making him feel nauseous and he only managed to nibble a few chips and take a bite or two from the bun of the burger, there wasn’t even lettuce in it.  
Harry presented the most sickliest looking cake Nasta had ever laid eyes on after they were done. It was three layers of chocolate and fudge buttercream; of course Harry would have made a chocolate fudge cake if given half a chance.   
He was given a small portion for which he was thankful, he kept his eyes on his plate and didn’t watch the others as they devoured their large slices of cake, because if he watched them he was going to tie all of them up and lay his teeth into their necks.   
Max cleared up and Harry moaned that he was so full he couldn’t move. Blaise looked like he had gone to sleep on the table top and Draco was feeding Braiden. He was the only one feeling like he would vomit at any sharp movement, he was the only one bothered by what he had just eaten and he was not going to let this slide. He couldn’t.  
As they all climbed into bed, Nasta made sure to position them carefully, then he turned and pulled out all of his Dracken attributes, he bit the same mark onto each of their necks, ignoring their protests and he demanded that they never have such a bad day as this again, that they had crossed the line and he wasn’t going to stand for it.  
Harry defiantly glared at him and Nasta bit the other side of his neck until Harry’s body went floppy and boneless and he had a little submissive cuddled in his arms apologising. Blaise Nasta could understand, he had slipped a few times when he had been thinking too heavily about his Mother, so he left him alone mostly and let him sleep, Max took the punishment graciously and curled up around Blaise, but Draco glared at him like Harry had and Nasta slipped Harry behind Max to cuddle up and pinned Draco’s wrists to the bed, kneeling on his legs to keep them still and he bared his teeth, fangs and all, right into Draco’s face, reminding him that he had had the same teeth in his neck, right over his main vein and artery, just hours ago.  
Draco turned his head, offering the same part of the neck he had bitten earlier and Nasta nudged his head to rest on the other side, giving a quick bite to the unmarked side, giving him a different lesson, you do not go against me.  
Draco settled down next to Harry and when Nasta tucked away his wings, fangs and claws and settled down next to him, Draco turned around and curled up to his chest. Nasta smiled and combed fingers through that silky blonde hair until the breaths against his chest evened out and he joined his mates in sleep and he hoped to the very bottom of his heart, that for his sanity, they never crossed the line with him again.

\------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, before anyone asked Harry was unknowingly pregnant when he drank the Irish coffee. He was about a day pregnant though and with the fight Harry had had with Amelle, all knowledge of him drinking a few sips of whiskey laced coffee flew from their minds.   
> No I do not condone drinking while pregnant, but I am also aware that people do drink when they are unknowingly pregnant and I’ve known people to have drunk all though out their pregnancies, which I frowned heavily on, but it wasn’t my baby, none of my business. Harry drinking a few sips of whiskey did not harm the Quintuplets, did not play any part in their early birth and was not what caused Leolin to be a Faerie, it had no effect.
> 
> Chapter 60 is going to be posted tomorrow morning I hope. There is an excerpt from it on my facebook page if you can’t wait that long, but I am aiming to have it done and posted by tomorrow, if not, it’ll be Monday/Tuesday.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	25. Anniversary

Anniversary 

Harry thought it was just a normal Thursday when Draco kissed him especially hard and gave him a small but heavy box.

“What’s this?” He asked with a smile as he opened it to find three special, two inch thick, chocolate fudge bars that promised to break his teeth if he tried to eat them without breaking them into small pieces with the flat chocolate hammer included first.

“Today marks one whole year since you chose me as your second dominant.” Draco told him proudly and Harry grinned, throwing his arms around Draco’s neck for a kiss.

“If it makes you happy and gets me more chocolate, happy anniversary Draco.” 

Draco chuckled and smoothed his hair from his scar; he kissed the little lightning bolt before combing through his fringe. 

“I was thinking that we could go for a special meal to celebrate, not anywhere fancy like Max took you when he was enticing your forgiveness, just the little family restaurant in Hogsmeade so we’re not too far away, but somewhere just for the both of us.”

Harry smiled. “I’d like that Draco.”

Draco smiled at him and Harry felt elated as he rushed around getting ready for lessons, being informed that he looked like a thirteen year old with her first crush, which earned Max the cold shoulder.  
He couldn’t wait for lessons to end, which was usual for him, but it wasn’t for the usual reasons as Hermione frowned disapprovingly at him as he checked the clock for the seventh time in as many minutes.

“Honestly Harry, I know you want to get back to your babies, but we still have half an hour of Charms left.” She hissed.

“It’s not that, well it is, but not totally. Draco and I are going to dinner in Hogsmeade for our one year anniversary tonight after lessons.” Harry said excitedly.

“You have a free period next, surely that’s enough time to get ready, seeing as Draco and Blaise have Potions with me next lesson. I would think Draco takes more time to get ready anyway.”

“Oh he does, but I want to settle the kids, have a bath and I need to find something to wear. I want to look good for him tonight.”

Hermione grinned and Harry blushed a bit as he realised he sounded like a thirteen year old with her first crush.

“Shut up Hermione.” He pouted sulkily.

“I didn’t say a word.” She defended with a large grin.

“You didn’t have to.” He informed as he wrote down the homework that was due next lesson.

“Just wait until I tell Ginny.”

“Oh please don’t tell Ginny, I’ll never hear the end of it, she’s bound to ask in front of half of Gryffindor if I wore my red and gold skirt.”

“You have a red and gold skirt?” Hermione giggled.

“I had a pleated red one but Max burnt it, so Ginny gave me one of her spare ties, she enlarged it as much as she could and sewed buttons onto one half and slit holes in the other to give me a gold and red skirt with a sideways Gryffindor crest on it, Draco hates it. I doubt Max could tell you what colour it was. I’m going to have to get proper skirts soon, the Gryffindor skirt, even after being enlarged so much, is far too small; the thin end of it doesn’t cover anything, I’ve never seen Blaise laugh so hard in his life.”

Hermione looked scandalised at the improper use of a school tie, but she let out a giggle regardless, trying and failing to hold her stern look.

“Maybe it would have worked better if you had used a spare scarf instead of a tie?” She suggested and Harry smacked his own head and scrubbed his face.

“Yeah, actually that would have been a much better idea. Draco has four Slytherin scarves. He lost one and it turned up after he had replaced it, one’s from his first year and it’s faded and the fourth is embroidered with his name in silver.”

“Maybe you could wrap that one around your hips for him, like a special present just for him alone?”

Harry grinned in delight. “Oh Hermione, I didn’t know you had it in you!” 

Hermione blushed, but said nothing as the bell rang. Harry linked arms with her and forced her to go over the enlarging spell with him, the scarf was a bit too slim for him to be comfortable, but if he enlarged it just a bit, he could be decent and naughty all at once.

“So I just point my wand at it right? No wand waving or swishes and flicks?”

Hermione grinned, but shook her head. “No, just point at the object, nice and steady and break the line once it’s big enough.”

“Do men ever use it on themselves?” He asked curious as a good looking Ravenclaw walked past with a noticeable bulge in his trousers that he was trying to hide with an armful of books, he wasn’t succeeding. 

Hermione looked at what he was looking at and snorted, going red cheeked. “They’d be unpleasantly surprised if they did. The spell isn’t meant for human use Harry, only inanimate objects, if a man wanted to change himself there he’d have to use human transfiguration, which is very hard and very difficult to do and energy consuming to keep it up for any length of time. I dare say if he used the enlargement spell on himself he’d either lose it completely, blow that part of himself off or shrivel it to the size and texture of a raisin.” 

The Ravenclaw they were following and sniggering about ducked into the boys’ bathroom and Harry and Hermione couldn’t help but laugh as they walked past.

“Think he had Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall last period?” Harry sniggered. 

“The Transfiguration classroom is on the ground floor Harry; it’s much more likely he came from the North Tower which meant he had Divina…”

Harry’s grin almost split his face as Hermione went slightly green. Harry burst out laughing and had to stop to support himself on the wall so he could breathe.

“What’s so funny?” 

Harry turned to see Draco and Blaise coming towards them from Arithmancy. Harry tried to speak several times, but just started laughing again. Hermione lost patience and huffed.

“Harry saw a Ravenclaw with an erection go into the boys’ bathroom and he joked that he had had Professor McGonagall last lesson when I pointed out it was more likely he had come from the North Tower, which means he had Professor Trelawney last period and Harry finds it all very amusing.”

“You mean that bathroom?” Draco asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the bathroom only a few steps away from them.

Harry nodded his head trying to get his breathing under control. The door to said bathroom opened and a very relaxed and sated looking Ravenclaw came out, no longer clutching his books to the front of him and Harry’s eyes met the Ravenclaw’s and of course Harry couldn’t control his laughter and slid down the wall crying in mirth. Blaise grinned at Harry and Draco smirked at the mortified Ravenclaw, who ran off in the opposite direction.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Hermione chastised, though her frown wasn’t as pronounced and her eyes were fighting back a laugh or two.

“I know, I’m sorry.” Harry gasped from the floor. “Did you see his face?” Harry giggled and Hermione smiled against her will.

“Are you quite done ogling the Ravenclaws?” Draco asked. 

“I wasn’t ogling him.” Harry defended as Blaise helped him up. “It was just so funny!”

“Hilarious.” Draco agreed tonelessly.

“Oh come on Draco, it was funny. Max would find it funny.”

“Max is a moron.”

Harry scowled at Draco, not liking his attitude.

“Ignore him Mio Bello. He got a question wrong in Arithmancy for the first time ever.” Blaise soothed, rubbing his shoulders.

“Whatever.” Harry said, kissing Blaise, saying goodbye to Hermione and promising to catch up and walking away from Draco.

Harry made it to his rooms and kicked his shoes off and dumped his bag before scooping Farren into his arms.

“Where’s my big boy.” He cooed.

“Getting bigger by the day!” Max grinned, pulling Harry into his arms and giving him a big, wet kiss.

Harry smiled, his budding bad mood stopped in its tracks. Max nuzzled Farren’s hair before leaning back to his face and kissing his nose, moving down to slip his tongue into his mouth. Harry sucked on that tongue and Max made a small, pleased sound.

“Enough of that, you have a baby between you.” Nasta chastised as he entered the room from the bedroom, carrying Braiden, who had a sock in his mouth.

“Is there any particular reason our son is gagged with his own sock?” Harry asked with a smile.

“He likes the taste of his own foot.” Max told him seriously.

“He pulled his sock off to suck his toes and then decided he’d rather suck on the sock, he screams if we take it from his mouth.” Nasta informed him.

Harry tutted and handed Farren to Max and took Braiden from Nasta with a passionate kiss. 

“What am I going to do with you Braiden baby?” He cooed turning his attention to the five month old baby.

Braiden pulled the sock from his mouth and dropped it, leaning forward to drool on Harry’s chin instead, little fingers clenching into his hair.

“Well that was easy.” Max commented as Harry nuzzled and kissed Braiden, tickling his belly and blowing raspberries on him.

“I’ve run you a bath Harry.” Nasta told him.

Harry sighed. “It doesn’t look like we’re going now. Draco’s in a foul mood.”

“You will go if I have to make him go, he can’t promise to take you out and then bail.” Max said furiously.

“I don’t think forcing him to go will improve his mood any.” Harry said sadly.

“Any idea what put him in a bad mood?” Nasta inquired.

“Blaise said it was because he answered a question wrong in Arithmancy for the first time.”

“That’s not an excuse. That’s weak.” Max supplied. “If he doesn’t take you, I will.”

“I’m not really in the mood anymore either. He accused me of ogling a Ravenclaw.”

“So?” Max snorted. “I would have been as well; some of those Ravenclaw blokes are fit.”

Harry grinned. “It was so funny! Me and Hermione couldn’t control ourselves. We were walking from Charms to the main staircase so I could come here and she could go down to the dungeons for Potions and this Ravenclaw darts past us, a bulge in his trousers trying to hide it with an armful of books, he practically dived into the bathroom. I wondered if he had had Transfiguration when Hermione pointed out that it was more likely he had come from the North Tower and Professor Trelawney and I couldn’t move for breathing. Draco and Blaise found us and this Ravenclaw comes back out all relaxed with a goofy look on his face and I cracked up laughing. I couldn’t help it, but then Draco started saying I was ogling him and I said I wasn’t, that it was just funny and I said you would have found it funny and he said you were a moron. I just said goodbye to Hermione and Blaise and came here.”

Max’s grin soured on his face and he sighed. “I know well enough that Draco believes I’m a complete idiot, but for him to actually say it out loud hurts.”

“You’re not a complete idiot!” Harry hissed, putting Braiden down to hug him tightly. “He shouldn’t have said that!”

“I’ll have a chat with him.” Nasta assured. “I won’t have my subordinates bullying one another.”

Harry snorted. “Make sure he knows he’s on a bed ban until he apologises.”

Max chuckled. “A bed ban? Why not just say sex ban?”

“One, because I’d never purposefully use sex as a weapon, two, we haven’t exactly had a lot of sex lately, so he could still be in the bed with us as long as we aren’t having sex, which is more than likely, so he’s banned from the bed, not from sex.”

“I respect the hell out of you for that.” Max said with a smile. “Not using sex as a weapon, most submissives do, it’s the only way they can control the dominant in some cases, though in a few rare cases the dominant does turn around and rape their submissive, not that I’d ever let any of the others do that to you.”

Nasta arched an eyebrow up at Max. “Like any one of us would dare do that to Harry.” 

Harry snorted. “As long as you don’t think me saying no is using sex as a weapon, because sometimes I just don’t feel the urge.”

Nasta chuckled and kissed him. “Of course not. I haven’t felt the urge in about three weeks, not really since the quintuplets were born to be honest; I’m just too bloody tired at the end of the day.”

“I always feel the urge.” Max grinned.

“How can you not feel tired at the end of the day?” Nasta demanded.

“I do feel tired, but nothing can get rid of my sexual urges.”

Harry chuckled and sat down on the settee with Braiden. Nasta shook his head.

“Oh no, you will be going for this meal, with Draco or with all of us but Draco if we have to. Go and get in the bath, pamper yourself a bit and then find something to wear. Go on.”

Nasta guided him from the room, taking Braiden from him at the bedroom door and lightly pushing him through into the room beyond. Harry laughed, shook his head and stripped off so he could climb into the bath. He wouldn’t say no to a bit of rest and relaxation, whether he went to a restaurant later or not.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Hermione made sure she sat right behind Draco, who was sat with a very silently angry Blaise. Professor Slughorn told them what they were doing, complaining once again over Professor Snape’s high expectation of his N.E.W.T class, and set them to work.

“I hope you don’t expect Harry to speak to you again today.” She said loudly enough for the two in front of her to hear, but no one else.

“Shut up Granger.” Malfoy spat.

“Well he’s not going to speak to you again today, perhaps not for the rest of the week. I’ve been his friend for five and a half years now, I know when he’s hurt and you hurt him.”

Hermione watched satisfied as Malfoy gave a quick, almost panicked look to the man beside him, as if for reassurance, but Blaise was cutting up his lionfish fins, not looking at Draco at all.

“He’d be with Max and Nasta right now wouldn’t he?” Hermione put in softer, more conversationally. “They’d know all about what you said to him and how you made him feel, I doubt they’ll be very happy with you either, especially not when Harry fears his time of the month is coming up.”

Both Blaise and Draco stilled and turned to look at her with shock and surprise.

“Harry thinks he’s going to go on, you know what?” Blaise breathed, so very quietly in the hustle and bustle of the classroom.

Hermione nodded. “His stomach and abdomen have tightened up and he’s feeling more of an urge to eat cereal and toast, especially in the mornings after he’s just woken up. He’s trying to control it and stop himself from demanding cereals and things, but he worries he won’t be able too much longer, the urge is getting stronger. He thinks maybe it will come upon him at the end of February.”

“He told you before he told us?” Draco asked.

“Oh don’t get your knickers in a twist, he tells Ginny and me everything.”

“Not everything surely?” Blaise said a bit panicked.

“If you’re on about your sexual prowess’ in bed, and any other place Harry can dream up, I’m sorry to tell you he’s very loose lipped about it, especially around Ginny as she finds him all the fetish clothing and toys he could possibly want in exchange for details of your bedroom life.”

Hermione smiled slyly at the gaping young men who had turned to stare at her in acute horror. “Ginny is particularly interested in a certain move Nasta does with his hips that Harry just can’t get enough of, that little hip rolling thing. I’m sure she’d sleep with half the world’s population of men to find one who could replicate it, as it is she believes that Nasta’s brother Sanex might be a big help.”

“Boys, done talking are we?” Professor Slughorn had arrived at Draco and Blaise’s table, Hermione made herself very busy with her potion as the two in front of her were being chewed out for talking about non-potions related topics.

“Yes sir.” They both replied, getting back to work on their potions. 

Hermione nodded, suitably satisfied that she had taken their minds off of their bad moods and hopefully when they reached their rooms, and Harry, Draco was ready to apologise for how he had acted, because Harry was so excited to be going on a solo date with Draco that he had been bouncing and acting like a worried girl, if Draco spoilt this for her best friend, she would have no choice but to tell Ginny and include the twins, there was going to be some pay back.

\------------------------------------------------------------- X

Harry felt much better as he wrapped a towel around his body and pulled the plug in the bath. He felt relaxed and happy as he dabbed himself dry and went walking into the bedroom and out into the living room.

Max whistled and Harry grinned. “Come to give us a private show love?” Max said lecherously.

Harry laughed but shook his head. “I need help picking what to wear. You know I have no fashion sense, I don’t want to embarrass Draco tonight.”

“After the way he’s treated you why would you care?” Max mumbled darkly, just out of Harry’s hearing range, but Nasta heard him.

“Of course I’ll help you.” Nasta exclaimed, pushing a feeding Calix into Max’s arms and herding Harry back into the bedroom, he gave a warning glance to Max over his shoulder.

“Is Max mad at me?” Harry asked curiously with a touch of sadness.

“Of course he isn’t, he’s angry with Draco love.” Nasta assured him.

“Because of what Draco said about him?”

Nasta smiled and shook his head. “No Harry, because of what he said to you, because of how unhappy he made you, Max doesn’t think Draco deserves this night alone with you because of how he acted this afternoon.”

“It’s still our one year anniversary.”

“It’ll be yours and Max’s one year anniversary in a few weeks.” Nasta said softly.

“I know, do you think he’d like to go out with me again? Would that be unfair to the rest of you, me going out twice with Max when you and Blaise are still waiting for a first solo date?”

Harry looked so upset about it and so shamed that Nasta just had to hug him, wet towel or no.

“It’s alright love, it’ll soon be our first year anniversary, and I’m sure if you and Blaise want to spend the evening together, no one else will mind. We love you Harry.”

Harry smiled softly and kissed him, letting the towel fall from his body as he wrapped arms around Nasta’s neck.

“Oops.” He blushed a pale pink, but Nasta grinned and chuckled, caressing a plump bum cheek softly.

Nasta nuzzled Harry’s neck, using both hands to touch as much of Harry’s thighs, bum and lower back as he could.

He sighed and pulled away. “Let’s get you ready love; if we stay here any longer then I’ll never let you leave.”

Nasta waved his wand and dried Harry’s hair for him. Harry chuckled and went to the walk in wardrobe and the section that was just his, even if he did borrow his mates’ clothes, most particularly Blaise’s as he was closest to his size, but he wasn’t opposed to borrowing a jumper or two from his bigger, broader mates when he was particularly cold.

“Here you are.” Nasta handed him his best pair of jeans, the ones that cupped and supported his bum and offered it up like a plate of meat. All of his mates loved those jeans.

“They’re so tight; I won’t be able to eat with those on and I haven’t worn them since I put on the baby weight.” Harry grumbled, even as he slipped his boxer-briefs on, his shorts were too loose to wear with those particular jeans.

“You’ll be fine Cariad. None of us can resist you in those jeans, we just need to find a shirt or jumper that looks just as good, but also keeps you warm.”

“Blaise’s blue jumper.” Harry said immediately. 

“I was thinking of Draco’s bright green cashmere jumper actually.” Nasta replied, pulling the jumper from its padded hanger, taking the plastic wrap from it and then handing it to him.

“Draco loves this jumper; he’ll kill me if I stain it, what if I spill food or drink on it?”

Nasta rolled his eyes. “When have you ever spilt your food?”

“Accidents happen.” Harry pouted.

“If Draco cares more for his jumper than quality time with you, I’ll beat him to death myself.” Nasta said seriously.

Harry raised his arms and allowed Nasta to pull the jumper on his body.

“How do I look?” Harry asked self-consciously, smoothing over his thighs and waist, where most of the extra baby-weight was. 

“Absolutely gorgeous.” Nasta sighed, pulling him into a kiss, those hands gripping his supported bum through the denim. “I’m jealous of Draco; I wish I could have you all to myself when you look as hot as this.”

Harry laughed and gave Nasta a coy wink. “Maybe if Draco’s still in a bad mood, you can.”

Nasta smiled at him softly before walking him out into the living room.

“Hey Max, what do you think of Harry? Is he ready for his date?”

Max turned around to look and then froze.

“Holy fuck, that’s not fair!” Max breathed, his voice heavy with lust, his eyes widening. “I’m going to be hard all night now.”

Harry laughed and went to kiss Max, who had to take advantage of the opportunity and pulled Harry onto his lap, pressing their groins together tighter than tight, holding his bum between both hands as they snogged furiously.

“Now that’s not fair.” Nasta commented.

The door opened and Draco and Blaise came into the living room, they just stopped, watching as Max and Harry had a furious tongue battle on the settee.

“Now that’s something I want to get in on.” Blaise chuckled.

“Go get in the shower Draco.” Nasta encouraged. “Harry’s ready and you do have school tomorrow, so the earlier you go the better. You both still need a good night’s sleep.”

Draco dropped his bag, kicked off his shoes, kissed Harry on the cheek and went to get in the shower as told.

“Has his mood improved?” Harry asked Blaise as soon as the bathroom door shut.

“I believe Hermione took his mind off of his bad mood by mortifying the hell out of him, telling Hermione and Ginny about our bedroom life Harry, really?”

Harry grinned unrepentantly. “Ginny knows where to find all of the best toys and clothes, I wouldn’t know where to start looking if it wasn’t for her, so yes, I don’t mind sharing details if she gives me clothes and toys.”

“I hope you told them that I’m the best in bed.” Max grinned as he massaged Harry’s bum before kissing and nibbling his neck.

“Obviously I don’t have a favourite.” Harry answered. “You’re all amazing at what you do, which is making me scream and writhe and making me fist the sheets or your hair, that one time I tore Blaise’s shirt from his body in orgasm, when I raked my claws all over Nasta’s back, when I almost broke my toes from how hard I was digging them into Draco’s back or when I almost tore a chunk from your shoulder Max. You all keep me very satisfied and my orgasms are always blinding in their intensity. It’s a wonder I haven’t done permanent damage to my spine from how often my pleasure arches it.”

Max groped him, squeezing his thighs, bum and waist before caressing a hand over his groin.

“Max! Stop that, I need to get ready.”

“You are ready.”

“I’m not wearing shoes.”

“Draco’s still in the shower.”

Harry struggled to think of something, when a small cry came from a bassinet, distracting Max for just a moment, but Harry was able to get free and he almost dived on little Leolin, who wanted a bottle.  
Blaise and Nasta chuckled, but Max pouted.

“Am I so terrible?”

“No, but you’re almost insatiable. If we start anything now, I’ll never get to dinner with Draco.”

Harry fed Leolin with the bottle Nasta handed to him, checking the temperature out of habit, not because he didn’t trust Nasta’s judgement.

“Are you sure I look okay?” He couldn’t help asking after he had burped Leolin and put him down to sleep. “I feel huge in these jeans.” He complained, looking at his thighs and bum critically.

“You look stunning Mio Bello.” Blaise assured. “Any slight to your body is imagined. True you have baby weight still, but it only serves to make you look healthy, you look so beautiful as you are, perfect even, don’t ruin that by criticising yourself.” 

“Blaise is right love, you’re perfect.” Max added. “I’m finding it difficult to keep my hands from you.”

“The baby weight adds to your shape Harry, it doesn’t detract from it, you need the weight to look healthy and you have never looked more beautiful, you’re coming more into yourself as a man now, growing and becoming more defined every day, you’re becoming such a handsome, gorgeous man and it’s a shame that you can’t see that for yourself. You don’t see yourself as we see you, as everyone else sees you and if there was one thing I could change about you, it would be that. I wish that you could see yourself as we do just so you’d stop being so self-conscious and self-critical, because there is nothing wrong with you.” Nasta told him seriously.

Harry swallowed and nodded, his hands stilling on where he knew the baby weight was. He’d trust his mates knew what they were talking about as he moved his hands to fiddle with the hem of the jumper instead of where the baby weight was most pronounced.

“What about the scar?” He said in a small voice. “It itches and it’s painful when stretched.”

Blaise came and cuddled him. “The birth of our five youngest caused that scar Mio Amore, how could we be unhappy with it? It is physical proof of your labour and amazing strength of character that created that scar, if we were at all having sex I would not avoid it, I would not shy away from it, in fact I would love to run my tongue along it, kiss it, suckle it into my mouth, because nothing could be more alluring than the physical proof that my lover has bared me children.” 

“Besides, you know the cream is working well enough that you may not even have a scar left once the course is completed.” Max said with a soft smile. “Not that I dislike it, my Farren gave you that jagged tearing on either side of the clean line, how could I not like it?”

“If it itches in the restaurant, just scratch it Harry. If it feels painful, adjust yourself, why should you care what others think of you?” Nasta asked. “If they’re as in love with their dining partner as we are with you, then they won’t even notice you and Draco, though there is a point to that, if you got up stripped naked and danced the hula then they might take notice, but if you scratch your belly, who will care? If you undid your jeans because they’re rubbing on your scar, who would notice except Draco, who would know why you are doing it? You’re overthinking everything love.”

“Who’s overthinking what?” Draco asked, coming out from the bedroom wearing a pair of dark grey trousers and a silky pearl coloured shirt. He looked gorgeous.

“You will freeze to death wearing that.” Nasta frowned at his thin shirt.

Draco rolled his eyes. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. It’s a short walk to Hogsmeade and it won’t be any longer coming back.”

“It’s snowing.” Nasta deadpanned. 

“I do know how to cast a warming charm.” He drawled.

Nasta sighed. “Fine, just be careful, the both of you.”

“They’ll be fine Nas.” Max assured. “I’ll have some hot chocolate waiting when you get back, it’ll warm your hands up if nothing else.”

Harry grinned at the mention of chocolate and Max kissed him with a grin.

“We won’t be more than a few hours.” Draco told the others as they said their goodbyes.

Harry made sure to kiss everyone goodbye, including their six children, promising to be back for their night time feeds and then he and Draco started the walk to Hogsmeade hand in hand.

“Before we arrive Harry, I just wanted to say I was sorry for how I behaved this afternoon. I shouldn’t have said half of what I did and didn’t say any of what I should have. I’m sorry for how I acted.”

“That’s okay; Blaise said why you were in a bad mood, as long as you’re not now.”

“How could I be in a bad mood now that I am hand in hand with you on our way to our first ever date?” 

Harry grinned and moved his hand to lace their fingers together in a more intimate hand hold.

“Granger had some interesting things to say.” Draco informed as they made it to the Entrance Hall and then out into the grounds.

Harry went pink cheeked but he still grinned. “Blaise said and yes I do discuss my sex life with Ginny and Hermione, usually in exchange for sex toys and fetish clothing, though that’s usually only Ginny, Hermione’s there as an extension, she doesn’t really like hearing about it, but she’s getting better and less prudish.”

“She also said that you had mentioned that you think you might be coming onto a heat period.”

Harry’s face went blank, but he sighed and licked his lips. He nodded gently.

“I think I might be, perhaps the end of next month, then two months and I get a heat period and may be pregnant once more. Joy.”

“Don’t worry so much about it love, if you get pregnant then you get pregnant, you know we’ll support you, even if we have had a few bumps in the past.”

Harry smiled at that, they had definitely had a few bumps.

“How much do you want to be a Daddy next?” Harry teased. “How about, we lock and ward ourselves in the bedroom the day my heat happens and have non-stop sex until the others break the door down, or make a hole in the wall?” Harry suggested, giving a cheeky grin to Draco.

“Oh I don’t know, if we really want to be sure we should lock ourselves in the bedroom three days before, just to get in some practise.” Draco smirked and Harry couldn’t help laughing, kissing Draco’s chin.

“It’s a plan. We’ll make a beautiful little blonde baby together sooner rather than later.”

“As long as our child has my textured hair, I don’t care what colour hair it is.” Draco assured. “Though a blonde haired baby of my blood would be a welcomed addition. Not that I don’t love our other six. I do…”

“I know.” Harry assured. “I know what you mean, if it were me I’d love them all as well, but I’d want one of my own, there’s nothing wrong with that Draco.”

Draco smiled and held Harry’s hand tighter, leaning down for a kiss. Harry obliged him happily as they carried on to Hogsmeade and the small restaurant on the outskirts of the village.  
Unlike the restaurant they had been to in Guadeloupe and the one he had been to with Max, this one did not have a hostess or a Maître’d waiting for them, but they found a table for two themselves and then a waiter happily came over to them.

“We don’t see many students out on a school night.” The waiter winked at them with a smile. “Naughty, naughty, but I won’t tell.”

“We are seventeen.” Harry said with a grin.

“Of course you are, you’re in every single paper, it’s not hard in a small village like this, and with being so close to the school, to hear all about you and your gorgeous collection of men. Where are the other three?”

“Looking after the six children.” Harry replied, thinking that that was a tad obvious.

“I had heard it was only four.” The waiter said with a frown.

“Cameron, Cameron, go and get them drinks.” An older woman looking a bit panicked came over to usher the young man away hurriedly. “I’m sorry for my son; he doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut sometimes. I’m Lucille; you may call me Lucy if you wish, but never Cilla, my grandmother used to call me Cilla, horrible woman.”

Harry chuckled. “It’s nice to meet you Lucille.”

“Nonsense, we’re happy to have you here, I take it this is a special occasion?”

“Our one year anniversary.”

“Has it been one year already? My, my, how the time flies. I take it you wanted something toned down for the evening, but something a bit more special than the three broomsticks?”

Harry grinned. “This was a slight surprise for me, Draco set everything up.”

“Such a sweetheart. Now, I understand you are seventeen now, but I also know it’s a school night, so you’re limited to one bottle of wine only, but we do a very special range of fruit cocktails that look alcoholic to please you older students.”

“Thank you. I think white wine would be best tonight. Perhaps a Chardonnay.” Draco spoke primly and Harry pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.

“Our finest white wine then.” Lucille nodded and moved over to the kitchen.

“I think Nasta called ahead.” Harry grinned.

Draco snorted. “I think if he had we would have been told they couldn’t sell alcohol to any students regardless of them being of age.”

Harry chuckled and shared a look with Draco as Cameron came over with a tray carrying two glasses of water and two menus. It seemed his Mother had had words with him as he smiled politely at them, didn’t say a word and left them quickly.  
Harry shared a snort of laughter with Draco as they both sipped their water.

“I’m not sure what I want.” Harry said with a frown as he looked through his menu. “It’s been so long since I had a choice really, Max has usually starts making dinner before we get back to the rooms to save time.”

“Anything you want Harry.” Draco assured him as a foot clad in soft leather brushed his calf. Harry grinned at Draco and they started a game of footsie under the table, very glad that the antique style white tablecloths went to the floor.

“I think I want something light, maybe white fish and potatoes.” Harry pouted and checked through his menu once more. “Yep, I’m sorted.”

“Here is our finest wine.” Lucille told them, pouring a small amount into two glasses. “This is a fine Chardonnay with a ripe, crisp flavour of pears, apple and citrus.”

“That is good.” Draco said after taking a sip. 

Harry sipped it and thought it tasted like bitter, battery acid, but he smiled and agreed with Draco none-the-less.

“I really think you and Blaise are more into wine than I am.” Harry said after Lucille had left them with the bottle and had taken their orders.

“Don’t you like it?” Draco asked.

“All I can taste is how bitter it is.” Harry frowned. “Red wine didn’t taste like this.”

“Red wines are softer.” Draco agreed. “I enjoy the stronger, sharper whites. If you want red wine I can order you some, damn what Lucille says about one bottle limits, I’m a Malfoy.”

Harry chuckled. “No, that’s alright. I think white wine must be an acquired taste though, all you posh bastards like white wine.”

“Oh? Is that how it is now?” Draco grinned at him. “You wait until we get out of here.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Harry asked softly, giving Draco a coy look and a wink. “Will I like it?”

Draco moved his foot higher up his leg and Harry laughed.

“Maybe you will.”

“Are we going to have a night of passion in the Shrieking Shack?”

“No we are not going to have any night of passion in a shack.” Draco replied scandalised and Harry laughed at him so hard he had to wipe away tears. “There must be years’ worth of dust and grime in that place, it’ll be filthy!”

“It has a bed though.” Harry said saucily.

“I don’t care if it has a…wait, how do you know it has a bed? How did you even get in there, it’s completely boarded up?”

“There is one way in, if you want, I’ll show you.” Harry winked and sipped on his white wine, trying and happily succeeded on not pulling an unsexy face at the taste to ruin the image.

“But…when did you get to go in the Shrieking Shack?”

“Third year, a Grim broke Ron’s leg pulling him across the grounds, so me and Hermione followed it to save him…”

“You followed a death omen as it dragged Weasley across the school grounds?”

“What if it had been one of your friends?” Harry challenged.

“Are you kidding? If that was me and a Grim had one of my friends, I’d say fuck it and let it have him as long as I get back to the castle in one piece.” 

Harry shook his head. “You’re despicable Mr Malfoy.”

“It’s better than chasing a bloody death omen across the grounds, wait until Nasta hears this, he’ll freak.”

“Nasta’s too easy.” Harry scoffed.

“Myron’s not.” Draco put in slyly.

“You dare!” Harry challenged. 

“Oh I do.”

Harry laughed then, throwing his head back. “I won’t tell you the rest of the story then.”

“Oh you have to!” Draco complained. “I knew Weasley had had his leg mangled in third year, I need to know the story behind it.”

Harry shook his head. “Well it turns out the Grim was an escaped mass murder…”

“Wait, wait, wait. This death omen was Sirius Black? Is that how he escaped from Azkaban?”

“Yes, the Dementors were less effective when he was in his animagus form, something about them not understanding an animal’s emotions, he lost so much weight that he was able to slip through the bars in his dog form and he swam to shore where he lived as a stray until he reached Hogsmeade.”

“That actually bears some thinking.” Draco said consideringly.

“You had better not be planning on being thrown into Azkaban; I’ll never forgive you for all the missed sex.”

Draco, who had taken a sip of wine, spluttered and coughed as he laughed in surprise.

“You’re terrible love of mine.” He said.

They both quietened down when two plates of food were brought out by the chef himself, it wasn’t any wonder, they were the only customers in the restaurant.   
Harry took a bite and made a pleased sound.

“Oh this is gorgeous.” He exclaimed, which made the chef beam and Lucille to beam happily at her…Husband? Harry wanted to say her Husband.

“If there is anything at all you need, don’t hesitate to ask for it.” The chef told them sincerely and bowed away from them.

“Max’s cooking is better.” Harry whispered a bit guiltily.

Draco smirked and nodded. “I know. I think we’ve become so used to Max’s way of cooking everything, that nothing else compares now, not even restaurant food. Max has ruined us all.”

Harry chuckled and clinked his wine glass with Draco’s. “Happy anniversary Draco, you’ve made me so happy over this past year, even though we had a rocky start and more bumps than we have extended family members, the only thing missing now is a baby between us, but we’re sure to remedy that soon enough.”

Draco chuckled. “I never once dreamed that I could be so happy and when my first submissive meeting was Harry bloody Potter of all people I thought I was out of luck, but you’ve really surprised me and I’ve surprised myself over this last year, I never thought I’d be able to share you with Blaise, let alone two others, but I’ve come to love all of you, even Max and Nasta and though we have six children and none of them are biologically mine, I love them with all my heart, I can assure you, no matter how terrified I was of Braiden in those first few early months.”

Harry chuckled as he remembered Draco’s face when he had asked him to bathe Braiden for the first time, horrified just didn’t quite cover it.

“The truth is Harry, I have never been happier than when I’m with you and though I may say and do stupid things when I’m angry, that anger will pass, but my love for you never will, so please, never take anything I say in the heat of the moment to heart, because I don’t mean it.”

The two of them shared a soft, sweet kiss over the table and Harry felt a bit too choked up to eat, so he took a gulp of wine instead, waiting for when he calmed down a bit.  
They both ate their meal, drank their wine and laughed over the table, Draco’s foot on Harry’s leg and Harry’s foot climbing ever higher until it stopped in Draco’s lap as they were brought their dessert. A large slice of homemade winter fruit pie with freshly whipped cream.  
Draco almost choked on the spoon of pie and cream Harry fed him when a foot suddenly moved that last inch into his lap, but Harry continued looking at him through wide eyes and an innocent smile.

“You’re a shameful flirt Harry.” Draco hissed at him.

“Would you like for me to remove my foot?” Harry questioned with a slight head tilt and a grin, his foot applying more pressure, Harry flexed his foot, rubbing against Draco’s groin.

“You have to do this here? Right here, right now?” Draco asked. “Did you do this to Max?”

“Yes I have to do this right here and right now and no, I did not do this with Max, you’re special.” Harry breathed, moving his foot faster.

Harry got a bit of pie and cream onto the spoon he was holding and brought it to his own mouth, making sure to catch a bit of cream on the side of his mouth as he slipped the spoon into his mouth, curling his tongue around it to make sure he got everything as he slipped it back out from his mouth. He moaned lowly and flexed his foot against Draco.

“I love cream.” He announced shamefully, flicking his tongue out to catch the spot of cream he had left on the side of his mouth.

“Fuck, you’ll be the death of me.” Draco said, a low, bass growl entering his voice, his eyes fixed to Harry’s tongue, which was tracing the outline of his mouth, looking for more missed cream.

“As long as the fuck comes before the death, we won’t have a problem.” Harry winked sultrily.

“Max is right. Wine does do something to you.”

“Or maybe, I just like spending time with the people I love the very most.”

“No, definitely the wine.” Draco said adamantly and Harry laughed happily.

“What do you say we leave here and go and fuck in the snow, I’ve never made snow angels while being fucked before.”

Draco closed his eyes and breathed deeply, even as Harry’s foot rubbed harder against him.

“I promised Nasta we’d come straight back after dinner.”

“Nas doesn’t have to know.”

“Are you kidding? That man knows everything.”

Harry chuckled. “Then we’ll have to convince him that it was worth it, that or we tie him up and gag him and have our wicked way with him.”

“I think I’m going to keep a bottle of wine in the cold cupboard just for you. But if anyone, and I mean anyone, sees what you’ve done to me I’m going to hit you over the head with it instead.”

Harry couldn’t help laughing at that. 

“What will your Mum say if she sees her only baby boy in the paper with an erection?”

Draco went pink. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here, it’s getting late and Nasta wants us home. I swear that man worries more than a parent does.” 

Draco smirked and stood up, helping Harry to his feet, they cuddled and Harry found out why when he felt a hardness brush his hip. He laughed and slipped a hand low on Draco’s waist.

“You touch it and I’ll kill you and leave your body in a snow drift.” Draco muttered as Lucille hurried over to them.

Harry laughed and held onto Draco tightly.

“Leaving so soon? Was everything to your liking?”

“Yes thank you. Everything was lovely, we’re expected back though, I don’t like leaving my babies for too long.”

“Very understandable.” Lucille smiled.

Draco handed her a full bag of gold Galleons and Harry knew it was far too much for what they had eaten, even with the wine, not that he minded as they moved off.

“But, your change!” Lucille said concernedly.

“Keep it.” Harry smiled toothily.

“Bless you both.” Lucille smiled at them and they went out the door, Harry holding it open for Draco before following the blonde into the snow.

“Oh hell, is it just me or did it just get colder?” Harry complained, wrapping his arms around himself. “You must be freezing Draco!”

“It’s only for a little while.” Draco assured.

Harry giggled. “I can see your nipples.”

Draco looked at his chest, where his nipples were standing out like pebbles through his thin, silky shirt.

“One problem goes, another arises.” Draco sighed. 

Harry looked disappointedly to Draco’s trousers and the erection that had vanished with the cold. He instead set to playing with and pinching Draco’s nipples.

“Stop that.”

Harry grinned. “I don’t think so. I’d suck on them if you stood still long enough.”

“I am not going to stand still so you can suck my nipples in the middle of Hogsmeade, at ten in the night, in January.”

“Spoil sport.” Harry pouted.

Draco chuckled and knocked his legs from under him, carrying him through the village and into the school grounds.

“You just want to stay warm don’t you?” Harry chuckled.

“Partly, that and I like carrying you, it shows off my biceps.”

Harry grinned at Draco and set to nibbling and kissing his jaw and neck.

“If my erection comes back Harry, I’ll shove it down your throat.”

“Oh please.” Harry begged breathily.

Draco shivered as they walked down the pathway to the castle and it wasn’t from the cold wind that blew around them.

“Tonight was supposed to be a nice evening, just the two of us, bonding and sharing a lovely meal together. It’s not supposed to have anything to do with sex.”

“It can still be a nice evening if we have sex.” Harry whispered into Draco’s ear. “I was always more into physical bonding anyway.”

Draco shivered again as he carried Harry up the stone steps and into the Entrance Hall. They met Filch halfway to the staircase.

“Students out of bed!” He almost yelled as if they were hiding in the shadows. “It’s after curfew! Detention the both of you!”

Draco shifted Harry into his right arm and pulled out a sheaf of parchment with his left.

“We had permission from the Headmaster to go into Hogsmeade to celebrate our anniversary. You’ll note that it specifies that we are allowed to break curfew.” Draco drawled as he handed the parchment to the caretaker.

Filch looked livid and the parchment shook in his hands.

“Get off the both of you, if I see you again tonight there will be punishment!”

Draco raised a perfect blonde eyebrow, smirked and set off up the staircase after a rebellious pause. Harry giggled and went back to licking Draco’s chin.   
They didn’t make it to the fourth floor before Harry slipped out of Draco’s arms and shoved him into a broom cupboard, tripping him onto a box of cleaning supplies and slipped onto his lap, grinding against him, silencing his protests with fast and furious kisses.

“Wine really does something to you, it does.” Draco insisted, trying to keep up with Harry’s kisses. Holding Harry’s tiny waist between his hands, trying and failing to force Harry out of his lap. “This is a broom cupboard Harry, we can’t have sex here!”

“Yes we can.” Harry refuted easily, undoing his belt with deft fingers, popped the button and lowered the zip before Draco could stop him.

“Harry!”

“Quiet or Filch will find us.” Harry warned, slipping to his knees to suck Draco into his mouth. 

Harry hummed around him and Draco’s hips jerked up into that wet, warmth reflexively and he groaned deeply.  
Harry sucked and licked around Draco until those large hands fisted into his hair, tugging and pulling and Draco’s moans were coming more frequently. Harry pulled Draco from his mouth, licking the salty taste from his lips and grinning at Draco’s dishevelled appearance.

“You look gorgeous.” He complimented.

“You look like a demon in an angel’s packaging.” Draco panted.

Harry grinned. He undid his own trousers, slipped them and his boxers off his body and slid back into Draco’s lap, kissing and nibbling at his lips.

“I love you.” He whispered, just before he went up on his knees, pressed Draco to himself and sat down on him.

“Fuck, you haven’t been prepared!” Draco chastised through gritted teeth as such a hot, tightness gripped him.

“I don’t care.” Harry answered, his own teeth gritted, but through pain.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I want you to.” 

“You’re not allowed any more wine.”

“That’s exactly what Max said.” Harry grinned wolfishly.

“I know why now!”

Harry chuckled before he shifted on Draco, testing the pain he was going to be in. It wasn’t as sharp or overwhelming as the first penetration had been, but he felt a pain inside, he believed he might have torn himself.  
Harry slipped up and then sat back down, feeling Draco moving within him brought his breath faster, his hips canted forward and his spine arched as he moved himself on Draco, whose body was stiff and solid, tensed and unrelaxed, his eyes were squeezed closed, his fists clenched together tightly as Harry moved over him.  
As the pain eased off and Harry found his own prostate, he began to move faster, harder, breathing heavily and moaning deeply as Draco’s hands found his hips, gripping him bruisingly tight, helping him move, bringing him down harder into his lap.  
Draco’s heavy breathing in his ear inflamed him, took his passion to another level and he pushed himself harder, ignoring his aching legs and screaming muscles as his entire body spasmed and he was forced to stop bouncing and start rocking instead, he moved his burning legs to wrap them around Draco’s waist, wrapping his arms around Draco’s neck, pressing their bodies tighter than tight, rocking his hips back and forth as quickly as he could, grinding their hips together harshly, mewling into Draco’s ear, taking pride and pleasure from Draco’s deep, growling moans, those strong hands squeezing and kneading his body, his back, his sides, his hips, his bum, anywhere his hands could grip hold of, until he wrapped his arms around Harry’s back tightly, pressing them together, thrusting his hips upwards into Harry as his orgasm approached.  
Harry pushed his body to the limits as he felt that pool of delicious warmth fill up his belly. His body quivered as he hovered on the precipice of orgasm, he wanted it so badly and he ignored the burning, the pain, the aching in his body as he moved with Draco to achieve what he wanted, clenching tightly around Draco to bring him with him when he went.  
With a deep groan, Harry didn’t so much fall over the precipice, but was shoved over it as the force of his orgasm had him screaming until his throat tore. Draco’s hand was then suddenly over his mouth, muffling the screaming as he himself bit deeply into Harry’s shoulder to keep from screaming himself.   
Harry was breathing so hard his belly and chest rose with his rapid inhalations. He cuddled tightly to Draco, who was panting into his ear.

“That was amazing.” Draco said his voice still deep, but now raw sounding as if he had screamed his throat raw.

Harry nodded tiredly. “I love you.” He whispered, his voice almost gone.

“I love you so much, I’m never letting go of you. Though if we don’t get back soon Nasta, Blaise and Max will come looking for us and they’ll find us frozen solid in this position. It’s freezing!”

Harry chuckled. “I can’t move.” He rasped.

“That’s alright, you’ve been so active tonight, I don’t mind carrying you.”

Draco stood up with Harry wrapped around him like a limpet, stooped to yank up his boxers and trousers one handed, zipped them up so they wouldn’t fall down when he walked, but left the button and belt open. He dragged Harry’s trousers onto his legs and shoved his boxer-briefs into his pocket.

“I forgot what floor we’re on.” Harry croaked.

“Don’t speak love, you’ll damage your voice more, we’re on the fourth floor. It won’t take us long to get back.”

“Time’s it?” Harry asked, his throat tightening to make the hoarse pitch of his voice waver.

“Almost eleven.” Draco grimaced. “Nasta’s going to kill me.” 

Harry snuggled up to Draco as he was carried through the castle, he was regretting his rash decision to take Draco without preparation or lube as he was already feeling so sore. When the endorphins wore off this quickly, there was a lot of pain to come.  
They made it to the seventh floor and Draco sighed heavily as they rounded the corner where the portrait to their rooms was located. Draco took out his wand, tapped the keyhole in the picture and the door swung open.

“There you are!” Max said happily. “I thought you might have booked a room at the Three Broomsticks.” He wiggled his eyebrows salaciously.

“Is Harry alright?” Blaise asked concernedly.

“Fine.” Harry rasped, that one word wavering as he forced it out.

“I told you to stop speaking.” Draco admonished as he settled Harry on a settee.

“What happened?” Nasta asked.

“He lost his voice.” Draco replied.

“Any idea why?”

“Screamed too loud.” Harry told them, his voice dipping even quieter.

All three mates looked to Draco, who glared at Harry. He sighed and nervously gripped his own upper arm.

“We had sex in a broom cupboard on the fourth floor.” He admitted.

Max laughed loudly and moved to cuddle Harry.

“You gave him wine didn’t you? Little bugger’s a demon when he’s on wine.”

“I had no idea he had it in him to do…that!” Draco admitted with a pink blush.

“He’s a dominating little bottom after a few glasses of wine.” Max agreed.

“How much wine did you have?” Nasta asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

“We shared one bottle.” Draco told him.

Nasta nodded, looking a mite happier. “So neither of you are drunk?”

“I’m certainly not, not from half a small bottle of wine.” Draco stated. “Harry was fine as well, even once we got outside, he walked fine.”

“Until you’re nipples stood out.” Harry croaked with a grin.

“You stop talking.” Draco ordered.

“Did you have a good time?”

“Yes.” Draco answered as Harry nodded. 

“Why do I smell blood?” Nasta demanded as he inhaled deeply.

Harry raised a hand and waved it. “Sex was rough.” He said hoarsely.

Nasta sighed, gave a look to Max, who stood up to get the salve.

“Did you have to be so rough?” Nasta sighed.

“You’re saying that as if it was my idea.” Draco defended. “It was all him, he was the one who shoved me into that cupboard, tripped me onto a box and then fucked himself on me. He didn’t give me time to even get my bearings, let alone enough time to even think to stop him, by the time I realised he was on top of me, he had already sat down on me.”

“Oh I wish I had been there. Gorgeous, hard man Draco being dominated by our sweet, little Harry.” Max grinned, throwing the jar of salve to Nasta as he started making five large mugs of hot chocolate.

“There was nothing sweet about it.” Draco grumbled. “He was like a ravenous animal, really, we need to give him more sex.”

Harry perked up and that and grinned while nodding. “I like that idea.” He whispered.

“You would.” Nasta smiled, picking him up bodily, setting him over his knees and pulling his loose, undone trousers down. He hissed.

Draco moved to look and he had to close his eyes at the amount of blood on Harry’s thighs.

“You should have stopped.” Nasta said furiously.

“I didn’t want to.” Harry hissed as much as he could through his raw throat.

“You’re nearly torn apart.”

“I enjoyed every minute.”

Nasta shook his head as he set to cleaning Harry up before applying the salve. Harry flinched as a long tear was touched. “Ow! Careful.” He exclaimed in his pathetic whisper.

“If you wanted careful, you wouldn’t be in this state!” Nasta huffed, but he moved that much slower and gentler regardless.

Nasta pulled Harry’s trousers off completely before he righted him and cuddled him on his lap, giving him a comforting cwtch.

“What are we going to do with you?” He sighed, laying a kiss to his hair. “Twice you’ve gone out for a solo date and twice you’ve gone all aggressive dominant on your dining partner because of wine.”

“To be fair, I did go even bigger aggressive dominant on him back.” Max said as he handed out the hot chocolate.

Harry chuckled and nodded.

“Did you at least enjoy the meal you went for or can’t you remember it?” Blaise asked as he sipped on his own hot chocolate.

“Lovely.” Harry said strained. “Not as good as Max’s cooking, but I enjoyed it. I was good.” Harry turned to insist to Nasta. “I had sea bass, potatoes, green beans and hollandaise sauce, though we did share some winter fruit pie and cream.”

“He’s never allowed to eat that again.” Draco said from the adjacent settee where he sat with Blaise and Max.

“The fish or the pie?” Max asked curiously.

“The cream.” Draco elaborated. 

Harry grinned.

“You didn’t?” Nasta asked.

“It’s not my fault it was a big spoon and I got cream on the corner of my lip, of course I was going to lick it off. I was hardly going to keep it there.” Harry insisted as loudly as he could.

That made them all laugh as Draco pouted.

“Did you have any trouble? I know the villagers like to gossip.”

“No, everything was amazing, except the waiter.” Harry said darkly.

“What did he do?”

“Made mention of the papers and tried to correct us when we said we had six children, he seemed to believe we only had four. That put a dark mood over us right from the start, until his Mother came over.” Draco replied.

Harry hissed unhappily and Nasta wrapped him in a tighter cwtch.

“I liked Lucille.” Harry admitted. “Didn’t like her son too much though.”

“I think his Mother hit shit out of him in the kitchen for what he said, we were their only customers all night and they could have lost us.”

“Is that why you tipped them so heavily? Did you feel bad?” Harry whispered, his voice cracking twice. He moved a hand to rub at his neck.

“I did feel slightly bad yes, because it is a nice restaurant, clean, usually friendly and they have good food and good wine, too many of the villagers prefer the Three Broomsticks though.”

“I don’t.”

“Maybe you should stop talking Prezioso.” Blaise said as Harry’s pitch went through three different frequencies.

Harry nodded and drank his hot chocolate.

“I want to know what you did to him.” Max told Draco. “I want to know what you did to make him scream so loudly he lost his voice, none of us have managed that bar you.”

“Don’t look at me, it was all him!” Draco insisted.

Harry laughed as he finished his mug of chocolate and whispered the word ‘bed’ between them. Nasta happily carried him into their bedroom and the others followed, ready to calm down and sleep until tomorrow, then all of the happy, funny, sordid details would come out. Harry could hardly wait as he snuggled up between two warm bodies and drifted off to sleep, hopefully his voice would be fine by tomorrow morning, he did not want to face Hermione and Ginny when they knew he had gone on a solo date with Draco.

\----------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was planned to be half the length it is now, but as with all perfectly made plans, the plot line didn’t want to stick to the word limit, so it doubled before I even thought of editing it.  
> I left this out of the main story because of the sheer length it was going to be, I wanted it to be about 5,000 words, that in the middle of a chapter would have detracted too much from the main plot, so it was pushed to the side and a good thing too what with the length it has ended at, so I hope you all enjoy this piece.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	26. Confrontation

Confrontation 

Max was angry; he didn’t think he had ever been so angry in his life. His hands had balled into fists and both of his arms were shaking with the strain, with how tightly he had clenched his fists.  
Harry was so upset, how could his own parents upset Harry so much as to sap the laughter and smiles out of him? Harry had been so quiet, so withdrawn over the past few days and he had been fretting and worrying that maybe he hadn’t fully forgiven him and Nasta, even as he assured them he had, only to find out that his own Mother had gone and forgotten something that was tearing the rest of them apart.  
How do you ever forget that someone had told you the hideous details of how they had been dragged up through childhood? They had all had to sit and listen to Harry describe in vivid detail the things that had happened to him, the monstrous things that had been inflicted upon him. How do you forget seeing pictures of a bare and bloodied room with several heavy duty locks on the door and a cat flap for food? His Dad had shown them all those pictures, even though he strictly hadn’t been allowed to as it could compromise the case, to help them understand what Harry had been forced through and she turned around and forgot all about it, how could she have forgotten?   
He spent half his nights dreaming about it, tossing and turning and waking in a sweat as he dreamed of a tiny, toddler Harry being smacked about and starved like a prisoner in his own home. Sometimes it snuck up on him; he would be watching Harry, on the floor playing with Braiden, making their beautiful little son giggle and screech in laughter, a wide smile on his own face, laughing with Braiden and so very happy and the thought would slip over his mind that Harry had had precious little reason to laugh when he was a child himself, that when he had been just a toddler, not even out of nappies, he was being forced to do things that no child should ever know, he had been forced to clean, had been pushed aside and left to his own devices for hours on end, he hadn’t been watched, he hadn’t been fed properly, he hadn’t been changed regularly enough, he had been kept in a fucking cupboard! Yet his Mother forgot, when no one else could get those thoughts or images from their head, when the court date loomed over them like a tidal wave of pain and sorrow and hurt, she could forget all about it. How?! How could she just forget when he knew his Dads’ were preparing heavily for the court case, when they had dedicated an entire room in their home for the information they had stockpiled ready for the court date, when they threatened so often to kill the monsters who had treated Harry like an unwanted sickness.  
Max’s hands tightened further, his short nails digging into his palms, though he was thankful that he had cut them recently along with Braiden’s, he didn’t need the scent of blood around him just now, he would turn feral. He just knew it.  
He breathed in deeply, lingeringly and he scented out his Mother, like he would have scented out prey to offer to his hungry submissive. The comparison was not lost on him.  
He pushed past his sister Talia as if she wasn’t there, ignoring her gasped exclamation of surprise, he didn’t stop, his mind was on one thing as he followed the scent of his prey to where it was most concentrated.  
Talia followed him and he grunted in annoyance of having his stealth compromised.

“Maxie, please, what’s wrong?” She asked him gently, her black eyes flashing in worry and concern. 

Max just huffed and took in a deep breath, ignoring the flowery scent from beside him, it was annoying and cloying on his throat, it wasn’t natural.

“Daddy!” 

Max winced as the loud sound pierced his hunter sharp hearing and gave away his position to his prey, he turned to the flowery scent and snarled, advancing on it and pinning it into a corner, it was annoying and overbearing, too loud, too unnatural. Something hard and heavy tackled him sideways and he had been too overwhelmed to sense it coming, that fake, unnatural scent was toying with his hunter skills.

“Maximilius, what is the meaning of this?!” 

Max snarled and tried to get that heavy body off of his own, his head was slammed back into the floor and his vision went white with the force of it, he snarled and his head was hit again against the floor, his head and neck twitched, ticking out of his control as his human mind tried to come to the forefront. His head was bashed into the floor a third time and he moaned, rolling his head on the floor until his burning cheek rested against the cool tile of the kitchen floor.  
He breathed deeply and calmly, he opened his eyes and looked up at his Father, his very angry Father who was glaring at him through those smouldering black eyes. He wondered how he had gotten here and what he was doing and then it all came back to him and anger tightened his body again.

“Where is she?!” He demanded in a bass growl.

Myron sneered. “You leave your sister alone!” He commanded.

“What? I don’t want her!”

Myron blinked, thrown off course and he looked up to his Husband, who had also come running at Talia’s scream.

“He was angry when he arrived.” Talia said, shaken up by her brush with her feral brother, but there had been many of them over the years, from both of her brothers and she knew they never meant it, that they would never mean to hurt her, her sisters or each other.

“Who are you looking for, whatever your sisters have said…”

“I don’t want them!” Max snarled, Myron bashed his head against the floor again.

“Keep control of yourself! Two of your sisters, your human sisters, are here, in this house. I won’t let you endanger them!”

“Daddy? What’s going on, what’s wrong with Max?” Alayla asked from where she was being shielded by Richard.

“Alayla, Talia, go upstairs and lock yourselves in one of the bedrooms.” Myron ordered.

“It’s not them I want!” Max shouted. “Where is she?”

“I assume you mean your Mother?” Richard answered as he crouched down behind Max and held his head still.

“How could she have hurt Harry like that?!” He roared.

“Mum hurt Harry?” Talia asked, her black eyes narrowing. “Why the hell would she do that?”

“Language!” Myron snapped.

“Why have you only just lost control now?” Richard asked. “This happened days ago.”

“Did Harry really only just tell you?” Myron asked, it was his understanding that a submissive would have loved to throw something like this in their dominant’s face, surely Harry wasn’t completely different to every other submissive, it was illogical.

“Oh believe me he didn’t want to tell me or Nasta anything, but he wasn’t the only one there that day was he?”

“Draco and Blaise.” Richard sighed.

“They sent that howler to her; I had to find out through a damned owl from you what was going on. That she dared to hurt Harry like she did!”

“We’re dealing with it.” Myron told him.

“I don’t care! I want to hear it from her mouth, I want to know why she did it, how she could have done that to him!”

“What did she do?” Alayla asked, her face pulled into a frown. “We all love Harry, he’s just brilliant, why would Mum hurt him?”

“She didn’t physically hurt him.” Richard explained to his confused daughters.

“She might as well have taken a fucking crowbar to his head!” Max shouted. “Where is she?”

“Mum went shopping.” Talia told him and Max immediately went to sit up. Both Myron and Richard rushed to pin him back securely to the floor.

“What are you thinking?” Myron demanded. “What are you going to do? Shout and attack your Mother in the middle of a Muggle supermarket? Do you want to be executed? Do you want your entire family to be blood tested and executed as well? Do you?!”

“Just think Max, you’re not thinking, you can’t put your family in danger like this! Calm down.” Richard encouraged, nuzzling his child’s face.

“I can’t, I need to know what she was thinking!”

“What did she do?!” Alayla demanded sharply, glaring at her Fathers.

Myron sighed heavily, was it foolish of him to have thought he could keep this from his daughters? Probably, nothing got past his shrewd, intelligent daughters.

“We found out that Harry is going to have a heat period in two weeks’ time, your Mother told Harry that it is usually the submissives family that look after the children during heat periods when he said he wanted us and Aneirin to look after the babies.”

“But Harry’s family are in court custody, they’re standing trial for his abuse and neglect.” Talia said slowly with a frown. “Of course he wouldn’t want them looking after his children, not that they could anyway.”

“Mum would know this, why did she say that to him? It’s cruel.” Alayla said.

“That’s the kicker.” Max snarled. “She turned around and told him she fucking forgot! How does anyone forget that a family member has been through such a terrible, lifelong ordeal?!”

“Mum actually said that? She told Harry that she had forgotten that he had been through so much? But we were talking about it just last week! She was there when we were talking about it Daddy!” Alayla said to Richard.

“I know honey, your Father and I have been trying to figure it out, but she’s not talking to us.”

“Can’t you just order her to answer?” Talia asked.

“We don’t want to take her free will away from her like that.” Myron answered. “We have always tried to treat her properly, but she is coming to the end of my patience, I want to know how she could have forgotten something like this when we talk about it more often than anything else.”

“What has she said?” Alayla asked. 

“Nothing.” Richard sighed.

“Should we call Caesar and Juda?” Talia asked.

“No, leave it be.” Myron said softly. “Your Mother feels terrible enough as it is, without the entire family converging on her at once, plus you know Amelle is pregnant again, Caesar won’t want to be from her side.”

“I’m sure he would.” Talia grumbled.

“Can you remain calm Max?” Richard asked, petting his firstborn’s hair lightly, smoothing his hand over his face gently.

“I don’t know. I’m so angry with her; I can’t believe she said that to him! You should have seen his face Dad, he was devastated and he’s hurting.”

“Just wait until Granddad finds out, he’ll kill her.” Alayla said. “He loves Harry more than anyone; it’s all he can speak about some days.”

Max chuckled. “Everyone loves Harry, who couldn’t love him? He’s just so amazing and I don’t deserve him as it is, without my own Mother starting on him!” Max had started out gushing, but rapidly turned to growling again. His mood changing in an instant, a sign of ferine.

“He chose you Max.” Talia told him.

“He didn’t though, did he? He got stuck with me! If it wasn’t for Draco taking those disgusting suppressants, he wouldn’t have destroyed Harry’s trust in him and Harry wouldn’t have rejected him and started looking for another mate. Harry told us that he always knew that he wanted Nasta, from the very first day he met him, he wanted Nasta, not me! If he had only had the three mates he needed, it wouldn’t have been me!”

“But he did have that mishap Max, he did take you as his mate, no one else, you and he loves you so very much or he wouldn’t be hurting so much after your fight.” Richard explained as he lay down on his back, turning his head to look at Max.

Myron shifted his legs to spread Max’s more, so he couldn’t get any leverage, so it was only his powerful upper body that could get him off the floor and as he was pinning Max’s shoulders to the floor, his son was not going anywhere soon. Ashleigh had been gone for two hours, she would be back soon.

“Uncle Nico said that hundreds of dominants turned out for Harry.” Alayla told her brother softly. “Hundreds Max, not one dominant left those meetings of their own accord, they all wanted him and out of all of those dominants, he chose you, he called to you when he went onto his heat, you, no one else. It wasn’t anyone else he wanted.”

Max nodded and let go of the breath he was holding, he knew all of that, but still, he owed Draco really for taking those suppressants, even though it could have severely damaged the blonde, even though he had physically hurt Harry and broken his trust, if it wasn’t for him doing all of that, he wouldn’t be mated right now, he wouldn’t have two gorgeous biological sons, he wouldn’t have four male lovers, he wouldn’t have three more beautiful, amazing sons to love, he wouldn’t have a daughter he could spoil and buy stunning little dresses for, he wouldn’t have a family.

“I can’t lose him. Not for anyone.” He said with a half sob. “He means the world to me, they all do. How could I live without them? Without cuddling with Harry or teasing Draco? Without laughing with Blaise and supporting Nasta? How am I supposed to live knowing that I have six children growing in the world and I’m not there? I won’t let anyone jeopardise that, not even my own Mother, if I have to sever ties, I will. I don’t want to, but I will not risk losing them.”

Myron felt like his breath had forcibly been expelled from his lungs, which ached and burned as he tried to draw breath through his dry throat. He went from pinning his son to clutching him; the transition was so smooth he barely noticed it. He could not lose his child, their firstborn son, his only biological son. His Dracken bellowed inside of him, lashed at him with claws and made his gums and nail beds ache to shift into their more primal counterpart. They could not lose their baby.

“No!” He snarled, clutching Max to him. “No! I won’t allow it.”

“I have to. If it will make it right between Harry and me, I have to do anything and everything I can to make it right between us and she hurt him terribly. I can’t let that stand!”

“Max love, please, just ask Harry if it’s what he wants first.” Richard begged.

“Harry’s too soft for his own good.” Max said.

“I know, but please, it may not be what he wants or what he means.”

“I want her to answer my questions first, only then will I put Harry through anymore.”

Richard and Myron shared a look. They had been trying for days to get her to speak, but she was being stubborn and not answering. She told them it was just a slip of the tongue, a brainless moment, but they didn’t believe her, they could tell she was lying, they knew her too well, had known her for too long.  
Ashleigh took that moment to come home and Myron held Max tightly, body to body and Richard sat up to hold Max’s hands so he couldn’t shift his hands and dig claws into Myron’s back, just in case he went feral again. His legs were being sat on by Myron.

“I’m home! Where is everyone?” She called happily and Max stiffened. How dare she be so happy when Harry was so fucking miserable!

She came into the kitchen and stopped, looking at her two dominant lovers wrapped around her oldest son, but it was the look on said son’s face that chilled her. She had never wanted any child of hers to look at her with such hate, such cold loathing.

“How could you have said such a thing to Harry Mum?” Talia demanded, staring at her Mother hard, through those gorgeous black eyes she had taken directly from her Father.

“I…it was just a slip of the tongue darling, I didn’t mean it, surely Harry knows that?”

“Harry is fucking miserable because of what you said to him!” Max snarled at her and she took a step back, she hadn’t expected this, not from her babies.

“No, he would understand, Harry’s a lovely boy; he’s not like the others.”

“Like you, you mean!” Max threw at her. “You’re just like the rest of them! Bitches the lot of you!”

“Maximilius!” Myron snarled. “I know you’re angry, but you do not speak to your Mother like that!”

“She’s not my Mother!” Max hissed. “I have no Mother!”

Ashleigh gasped and took a step back and Myron let go of Max in shock, his fingers felt numb. No, he couldn’t let this happen! He couldn’t let his family fall apart like this, he couldn’t, his heart wouldn’t take the split.

“Maxie, please.” Richard said softly. “Please, don’t do this.”

“No! She hurt him! She forgot everything he has had to overcome through his life; he’s been through hell and back! He’s been hurt and he’s still hurting, the court date is this spring! It’s so close and none of us can think of anything else, tell me how the hell you forget?”

Ashleigh remained silent, shocked under the words her son was shouting at her, she swallowed and tried to think of something, anything to say that could make this better. She took too long.

“ANSWER ME?!” Max roared as loudly as he could, losing control of himself and trying to throw himself at his Mother. Myron pinned his legs and gripped his waist, dragging him under his body and lying on him.

Ashleigh flinched away from her son and felt her heart break. This was all wrong, so wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

“How could you do this Mum? What were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking Laya love, I didn’t mean to hurt Harry, of course I never forgot what happened, I don’t know why I said it and I will apologise to him repeatedly.”

“You’re LYING!” Max screamed. “You won’t go near him or my children! You stay away!”

Ashleigh felt like Max had crippled her and she felt dizzy, she clutched her chest and looked at her livid son in shocked horror.

“You can’t!” She gasped. “Please, don’t keep me from them!”

“No, you stay away from my family! I don’t want you anywhere near them!”

“No, Maxie, please, you can’t keep me from them, you just can’t!”

Ashleigh fell to her knees in front of her son and she tried to reach out to him but he lashed out at her, only missing because Myron lunged for his wrists and pinned them both to the kitchen floor.

“You don’t deserve to know them! I don’t want you anywhere near Harry or my children! I don’t want to see you; I don’t want to hear from you, I don’t want to know the woman who could forget what Harry went through! Let go of me!”

“What are you going to do?” Myron asked, feeling his heart breaking.

“I’m going home away from her!”

“Max, please don’t do this, please!” Richard begged, his eyes already tearing up and his throat going tight with emotion.

“I didn’t do anything.” Max panted harshly. “It wasn’t me who did this Dad, it was her! This is all your fault!” Max told Ashleigh, getting his knees under himself and sitting up, his Father still holding him.

He pushed his Father off and stormed out of the kitchen, ignoring his teary sisters, his sobbing Dad and his horrified Father and Mother.

“Please Max, I love them, you can’t stop me from seeing them!” Ashleigh begged, coming after them.

“I already have, stay away from my family or I’ll…” Max swallowed and looked his Mother in the eye. “Stay away from them, or I’ll kill you. I mean it. I won’t have anyone hurting Harry, not even you, so stay away from us.”

Max left his Mother crying helplessly and rocking herself back and forth on the floor and flooed back to Dumbledore’s office, the man wasn’t there and Max was somehow grateful for that.  
He went straight to his rooms, students darting out of his way, which made a nice change from them trying to question him on everything from what it was like to be Harry Potter’s lover to the babies to his other lovers and what was the worst was when some little school girl tried to flirt with him, he always felt dirty and somehow old when he stared down at them in their little uniforms as they tried to flirt with him or pass him sweets, cakes and chocolates that were most likely laced with love potion, he always shoved the boxes back at them or if he couldn’t, he just dropped them on the floor. Nasta always gave him a look and said it was rude. Max always said that he didn’t care and would rather discourage them harshly rather than let them think he kept their little gifts.

“Maxie?”

Max turned and looked at the little girl who ran from her group of giggling friends, all wearing a Hufflepuff uniform, blushing pink and playing with her shiny brown hair.

“Do I know you?” He asked testily.

“I…no, but I was wondering if you’d like to come with me for the next Hogsmeade weekend? It’s at the beginning of the next month if you didn’t know.”

“Why would I do that?” He asked as calmly as he could, but his hands automatically formed into fists. “What possible reason can you think of that I would go with you, a stupid little girl, over my lovers? What makes you pathetic little girls think that I would even look at you over the four people I love so very much? I have four lovers, I have six children, I am going to be married to said lovers very soon, so tell me, where do you little shits get off asking me something so fucking stupid?”

The little girl, who had to have been a fifth or sixth year, mouthed wordlessly, her blue eyes flooded with tears and Max didn’t care. He stared her down until she turned on her heel and fled from him in tears and he turned on his own heel and strode off down the corridor towards his rooms. They could say what they damn well wanted, but he would never ever be accused of cheating on Harry, he never wanted it to be doubted that he loved his four mates and only his four mates.  
He reached the portrait door and jabbed it with his wand before shoving it back up his sleeve and into his holster. He stormed into the room and he knew he was too angry to be near his mates, to be questioned or prodded, so he carried right on through, not making eye contact with any of them and he went right into the bedroom and he let his anger get the better of him as he slammed the door behind him.   
He breathed deeply as he heard his children crying and his heart skipped a beat as he knew it was because of him that all six of them were screaming. He clenched his hair in thick fingers and tugged on it harshly before heading up to the platform and scooping up Farren and Tegan. He sat on the bed and held them to his chest, feeling their tears soaking through his shirt as his own tears dripped off of his nose and onto their heads.  
As soon as they calmed down, Max put them into their bassinets, even if they were still awake and flumped back onto the bed that smelt like all five of them mixed together. He inhaled deeply and he couldn’t imagine not sleeping with his four lovers beside him. He rolled over and buried his face into Harry’s pillow. He wrapped his arms around it like it was actually Harry and breathed in as deeply as he could. Chestnuts and the shampoo Harry had used the day before, formula milk that had probably dribbled onto the pillow from a night feed and a hint of Draco’s cologne.   
He sobbed and smothered it into the pillow. He didn’t want the others coming in and he was so grateful that they hadn’t yet, he just needed to be alone, he just needed to get his head around everything and to calm down and then he’d be okay. He had made the right choice, there was only really one choice when it came to sides and he had made his choice, the only choice he could live with.  
He fisted his eyes roughly and swallowed. He tried to think, but it led right back to tears. He let himself cry while he was alone; he didn’t want to cry in front of the others. He couldn’t suppress the sob that escaped and once it came, he couldn’t stop the next one or the one after, he smothered his face into the pillow and cried until he couldn’t cry anymore and at that time he felt bone weary and drained and slightly sick.  
He scrubbed his face and stood up, he checked on Farren and Tegan and both babies were asleep once again and he sucked in a deep breath before climbing down the stairs into the main part of the bedroom. He couldn’t hide in the bedroom forever, not from his lovers.  
He rubbed his face again and looked in the mirror on the other side of the wardrobe door. He looked terrible and there was nothing he could do about it. He went out and all four of his lovers were looking at him, Harry with an armful of plates in his hands. He hadn’t even thought of dinner and he felt terrible for that too, it was his joy to cook for those he loved.

“I’ve made you something to eat if you’re hungry.” Harry told him softly, looking at him with such love and understanding in those green eyes that he felt choked once more.

He rubbed his eyes harshly and nodded his head, too choked up to speak as he went and sat down at the table.

“Thank you.” He forced out, hating how weak he sounded, how rough his voice and throat was.

Harry smiled softly at him and collected the rest of the dishes, Blaise winced opposite him and started up some hurried conversation with Nasta and Draco, Max smiled at his plate as he realised Harry must have kicked him, he appreciated the effort they were making for his comfort and he also appreciated the dinner Harry had had the forethought to make, for one of only a handful of times he didn’t feel like cooking, but he would have if Harry hadn’t done it.  
Harry’s syrup sponge dessert was wonderfully light and melt in the mouth and absolutely gorgeous and he was feeling so much better after finishing it. He went and sat on the settee and slipped into deep thought, he was staring at Braiden’s little sock, that had been pulled off and left on the floor, but he wasn’t really seeing it.  
He couldn’t believe that anyone could have forgotten that Harry was mistreated so severely, he couldn’t believe that his own Mother had forgotten, he would never have believed it of her. Not his Mother, not the woman he had grown up with. Not the woman he had loved unconditionally for thirty-two years.  
He swallowed and wrung his hands together tightly, his breathing came quicker and more shallow, he startled as Harry slipped onto his lap and it took a moment for him to realise what was going on, so deep were his thoughts. He slipped his arms around Harry’s weeny waist, for all that he complained that the quintuplets had ruined his body, he still loved Harry as much as he always had, more in fact as the more he found out and learned about Harry, the more he fell in love with the strong, independent, feisty, if temperamental and sometimes moody man that had given him five sons and a daughter and he had not once lost his sexual attraction to Harry, not once.   
He held Harry tighter; there was no comparison, no need to think about anything, he had chosen Harry over his Mother and he would again and again, for however long he needed to.

Nasta’s voice suddenly coming in louder startled him again and he looked up as the older man addressed Harry “Did you do your catch up homework Harry?” 

“Most of it.” Harry replied, his tone of voice alone let Max know that he didn’t want to do it either and he smiled.

“Don’t you think you’d best get on with it?”

“No.” Harry wriggled on his lap and snuggled in tighter to his chest and Max couldn’t help smiling as that tiny body fit so perfectly in his arms. “I’m warm and sleepy. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Nasta sighed in defeat. “Alright, but don’t forget.”

“I won’t forget, promise.” 

Max grinned into Harry’s hair and nosed around it, inhaling deeply, but subtly so he could get a lungful of his scent.

“Ah ma!” Braiden called sleepily from the floor and he held his arms out to Harry, pouting that little mouth to get his Mother to do what he wanted. It worked like a charm.

“Oh Braiden, really, right now?” Harry sighed, even as he already moved from Max’s lap to pick him up. 

Max lamented the loss of Harry’s body on his lap and the heat of said body for all of two moments before Harry was back and with a baby in tow. He slipped his arms around them both and cradled them tightly as Braiden yawned, showing off his tiny little teeth, he fisted his little eyes, that he had taken right from Blaise and he couldn’t help smiling at the tiny tot. How he loved his family, this was the right choice and he would remain adamant over that, he did not regret a thing.  
He held both Harry and Braiden and they both fell asleep in his arms, it made him smile and made his heart melt. He loved them both.

“Can someone put Harry’s pyjamas over the grate please, he’s ready for bed.”

Nasta did as he asked immediately and Blaise came and took Braiden, giving him a lingering, loving kiss and going to tuck him into his cot.  
Max cradled Harry tighter and rubbed his nose over Harry’s small featured face. He pulled back and let his eyes linger over Harry’s face. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t done so in months, he lifted a hand, pointed a finger and traced Harry’s slightly opened mouth around his perfect little lips. He traced his ear, he traced the tiny nose and around Harry’s larger than average eyes. He only half wished those eyes were open so that he could see that completely unique colour, but Harry needed his sleep.

“Harry’s pyjamas are ready Max.”

Max nodded and tore his gaze away from Harry’s face. He took the almost hot pyjamas and undressed Harry as gently as he could, he had had a lot of practise over the last several months, and redressed him just as gently, Harry snuggled into the warm pyjamas and Max couldn’t help but smile at him.

“I’m going to put him to bed.” He told the other three.

“Alright, you’d be best staying with him.” Nasta told him gently. “You look shattered yourself.”

Max nodded and carried Harry into the bedroom and up to the bed; he stumbled right beside the bed and dumped Harry down heavier than he wanted to. He closed one eye and hoped that Harry stayed asleep, but he blew out a breath when Harry’s eyes cracked open and looked at him.

“I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m sorry.”

Harry made an indiscernible grunting noise and yawned widely.

“‘S okay.” He murmured as he yawned again, turning his body to face him more, likely without realising it.

“Go back to sleep, you’re too tired to be awake.” Max insisted to him, feeling terrible for waking Harry up.

“Hmm. Stay with me?” Harry asked softly and Max just couldn’t refuse him anything he asked for.

“Of course I will, just let me get out of my jeans.”

Max pulled off his jumper and vest and struggled out of his tight jeans and his socks, leaving himself in just his boxers. He looked up and swallowed at the sleepy look of desire he was getting from Harry.

“I love that look on your face. That possessive, lusty expression when you look at me.” He said as he drank it in.

“You’re all mine.” Harry reminded him. “I have a right to be possessive of such a gorgeous body. I get so very jealous when women try to take you from me.”

“They’ll never succeed Harry. I am gay and I have been since I was a teenager, no matter how much I tried to get myself to like the female body in preparation for my meetings. Plus I love you, very, very much. I’d never leave you, least of all for some woman.” Max said sincerely thinking back to the young girl he had been spiteful and awful towards, even if she was in the wrong for trying to come between him and his lovers and children. “And if for some reason I do ever leave you for a woman, please check me for spells and potions before getting upset and shredding all of my clothes.”

“They have no right to look at you like that, only I can.” Harry frowned, but it looked more like a pout at his tasteless joke. 

Max chuckled anyway and slipped into the bed to spoon against Harry’s soft, warm body. It was quiet for a while in the bed and Max felt Harry sigh and snuggle down, relaxing himself to fall asleep, he couldn’t help himself, he had to speak to Harry before he fell asleep.

“I’m so sorry about what my Mother said, she had no right.”

Harry stiffened right up in his arms before letting out a breath. “It’s alright.”

“It’s not though is it. I can’t believe that not only did she forget, but she told you she had forgotten. I’m so angry with her right now I don’t think I could even look at her.” He explained remembering back to that afternoon in his childhood kitchen and the fight with his Mother. He really couldn’t look at her.

“Does…does she see me as a person Max?” Harry asking him vulnerably and it twisted his heart until he had trouble breathing. “Does she see me, or does she just see a way to get babies?”

Max swallowed heavily and his arms twitched around Harry’s. “I don’t know.” Was his quiet, almost sobbed answer. “I just don’t know.” And the saddest part was he really, truly didn’t know and it was that, which was slowly killing him.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I haven’t done one of these in a while, so I thought I would for all of you who chose to read this companion piece! So this is what happened that day all from Max’s POV and as you can see, he is a very conflicted young man and very tortured at the moment by his own thoughts and feelings.
> 
> There is a fun vote going on, for the Dracken baby among the quintuplets. Vote for one baby only! Either Farren, Tegan, Regan or Calix. Just the one and remember that this is purely for fun, your vote has no effect upon the baby which is actually a Dracken at all or if they will be Dominant or Submissive. So vote away!
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	27. Controversy

Controversy

 

Nasta Tabrien Delericey sighed as he looked at the young sixteen year old girl standing with her boastful parents. He had only just turned thirty-three the day before and he’d rather be anywhere else but here. He could tell right away that this girl was not the one for him.

He guessed that she was nice to look at, dark hair, dark doe-eyes and a tiny, lithe body, but the fact that she was wearing more make-up than a cosmetics shop, her skirt was more like a wide belt and her top was made from a sheer lace made it difficult for him to judge her natural beauty and seriously made him consider what this girl had been thinking when she had dressed for this meeting.

 

“Elsie would like to review your names and ages with her parents and then reconvene here.” Elder Midate told them in his deep, booming voice.

 

Nasta, unlike many of the other dominants, liked Elder Midate, who took absolutely no shit from any of the dominants. Elsie was in good hands with the Elder, he wouldn’t let any dominant near her and if one did do something that she didn’t like, the furious Elder would most likely beat them to a pulp. He was a serious weight lifter and made sure his body was strong and supple to better protect the submissives delegated to his care.

 

“This is where she boots out anyone over the age of eighteen.” A voice said from behind him.

 

Nasta was smiling before he turned around, a good looking man coming closer to him, picking his way through the other dominants, who scowled at him as he forced his way past them.

 

“I thought you weren’t coming?” He asked the slender man.

 

The man huffed. “You know damn well I had to come once the call went out. I doubt I’ll be staying long though Nasta, that submissive looks dog rough.”

 

Nasta’s smile widened. “Did you see how short the skirt was?”

 

“I think it takes the record for the shortest one we’ve seen.”

 

Nasta nodded. “How are things on the Arvidsjaur reserve?”

 

“Those Swedish Short-snouts are getting agitated; they always do this time of year. It’s like they know or they’ve learned that the annual broom race is coming up. I hate that they pass through the reserve just for sport, completely disregarding the Dragons welfare.”

 

“I’m so glad the Welsh reserve doesn’t have to put up with anything like that. I don’t know how I’d react if they distressed the dragons.”

 

“Still got your favourite girl?”

 

Nasta grinned. “Of course I have, every handler needs his favourite girl, Sixten, how’s yours?”

 

Sixten snorted. “She’s still a bitchy, broody mare if you ask me, but there’s just something about her. Oh, she hatched three nestlings last month, I expected her to eat them again, like her last clutch, but she’s doing well so far, or at least they’re still alive, they might even make it to fledglings.”

 

“I’ll keep them in my thoughts; you never know she might surprise you and rear them to juveniles.”

 

Sixten snorted. “If she does that I’ll give you one of the survivors. She’s got two females and the one male, though I’m sure you and your reserve would rather one of the females.”

 

Nasta nodded. “Females are always more sought after than the males, this meeting makes me wonder why.”

 

Sixten choked back his laughter as the submissive came back into the room with her parents and the chatting dominants quietened down.

 

“I’d never let my daughter dress like that.” Nasta hissed in a growl as he watched the girl’s Father look at her proudly.

 

“Me either, though I’m still hoping for all boys. A girl would end up hating me for life because I’m never going to let her wear make-up, I’m never going to let her dress the way she wants to and god help any dominant that wants her.”

 

“Male submissives are few and far between though and that’s your best bet for all-male children.”

 

“If a male submissive pops up I’ll eat my left hand, they’re extinct Nas.”

 

“I don’t think so. There just hasn’t been one in a long while.” Nasta responded easily before Elder Midate cleared his throat loudly.

 

“Now Elsie would like to make a…controversial request.” Elder Midate looked as uncomfortable as Nasta had ever seen him and wondered what the hell this submissive wanted them to do, he thought he had heard the worst when that submissive in America had ordered a gladiator style battle to the death until one dominant remained.

 

“I want to see your bodies.” Elsie practically squeaked in excitement. “All of it. You need to have good bodies if you want a shot at me.”

 

“She can’t be serious.” Sixten demanded as the roar of noise from the dominants rose up around them. “She wants us to strip down to absolutely nothing just for her to tug and play with us? What am I, a Barbie doll?”

 

“Barbie was female.” Nasta corrected as he watched some baby doms rush to strip out of their clothes, eager to show off what they had, absolutely all dignity gone and no thought to the humiliation to come as Elsie rushed to fondle them, ignoring that more than half the room had not rushed to strip for her.

 

“Besides the point!” Sixten hissed as he tugged his shirt down pointedly.

 

 “This is ridiculous.” Nasta huffed, turning away as Elsie dismissed the first two dominants ‘for not being big enough’ “She’s sixteen and supposed to be a virgin, how does she know what ‘big’ is?”

 

“It’s certainly not you.” Sixten ribbed with a grin.

 

Nasta gave him a knowing smirk. “It’s not how big you are, but how you use it and I think you’ll agree that I use mine very well.”

 

“You’ve got your movements down to a fine art and you know just where to hit.”

 

“Is that so? Fucking other dominants now are you Delericey, never would have pegged you for being that desperate.”

 

Nasta let out a heavy breath and wondered when the Maddison clan had snuck up on him.

 

“What’s it to you who I sleep with?” He asked Sandor Maddison coolly, not rising to the bait.

 

“Because he wants a go at what you had.” Cassander Maddison laughed, digging an elbow into his younger brother. “I wouldn’t say no to getting on top of Sixten.”

 

“In your dreams old man!” Sixten hissed.

 

“Watch what you say to my Uncle! Remember who you’re speaking to!” The formidable form of Maximilius Diadesen Maddison threatened. Nasta was disgruntled, and a little disgusted, to see that the twenty-six year old had grown at least another two inches since he had last seen him.

 

“You Maddisons are all the same! You’re all stuck up each other’s asses and expect everyone to kneel down and lick your feet!”

 

“You can lick my feet if you want to.” Cassander winked at a riled Sixten. “I’d much prefer you to lick something else from your knees though.”

 

Nasta groaned and held Sixten back easily. “Stop it Sixten, you’re making a scene, Elsie will notice you.”

 

“Oh hell no.” Sixten grumbled as he stopped fighting and rounded his shoulders.

 

“She’s still too busy fondling the baby doms.” Max snorted. “What a load of shit this meeting is.”

 

Nasta stood between his two friends, keeping the Maddisons and Sixten separated and nodded in response to Max’s statement.

 

“How can the Elder just let her do this? It’s disgusting; her hands are all over his cock. It’s coerced molestation.”

 

“Midate needs the stick removed from his arse.” Cassander grinned. “If my siblings weren’t so proud I’d be right there getting a quick squeeze, it can’t be molestation if you want it to happen.”

 

“You’re not going Cass.” Kyra growled. “None of us are. The Maddison name demands more respect than stripping nude and letting a submissive fondle us like cattle.”

 

“You might look like a cow under your trousers but I don’t.” Nicodemus put in affronted.

 

“None of us are going forward!” Kyra hissed deeply and threateningly. “Dad would lose his head if he found out any of us went forward and Myron would slaughter us if we let his baby boy humiliate himself.”

 

“Are you saying my body isn’t good enough Aunt Kyra?” Max asked in a faked hurt tone.

 

“No one’s body is good enough for her Maxie, can’t you see that? She wants to touch as much flesh as possible, nothing else. She’s probably been exposed to pornography and is hooked on the image of the ‘perfect’ male body that doesn’t exist.”

 

Nasta had to agree with Kyra, the submissive wasn’t asking any questions, wasn’t doing anything other than touching, and sometimes licking, the dominants before her. It made his stomach turn.

 

“Are there any more of you willing to come forward?” Elder Midate asked, pale under his dark skin and Nasta reckoned he wouldn’t be forgetting this meeting for a while.

 

“I want them all to come forward! Every single one of them!” Elsie stomped her foot and Nasta rolled his eyes automatically. Definitely not the one for him.

 

“We can’t force the dominants to undress.” Elder Midate explained. “I told you before Elsie, it’s against the laws.”

 

“But I want them to. Daddy make them do what I want!”

 

“That’s it, I’m leaving.” Sixten told them shaking his head. “Any dominant who wants her is crazy.”

 

“Or desperate.” Max scoffed. “I’m going. I can’t wait to tell Dad about this, he’s going to piss himself.”

 

“Language Maximilius!” Kyra chastised, to which Max rolled his eyes.

 

“You are so much like Dad it’s unreal. You should have been twins.”

 

“She already has a twin.” Cassander pointed out. “How is Kyrie doing with Joseph?”

 

“Fine.” Kyra answered. “I saw her the day before yesterday, she still thinks about Carl often, especially with Joe looking so much like him, but she’s getting better. Joe is about to graduate University, you should know this, you were there when I told Dad.”

 

“It’s harrowing to know that he’s been dead for longer than I’ve been alive and Aunt Kyrie is only now just getting over his death.” Max frowned.

 

“Oh that’s right, you never met Carl did you? Right fucking wanker.” Cassander said.

 

“Cass!” Kyra smacked him upside the head, hard.

 

“You cannot force the dominants to strip naked!” Elder Midate’s voice roared over them and they all turned curiously to see him shouting into Elsie’s Father’s face.

 

“Oh, this could get good!” Cassander chuckled. “Midate is a tough fucker.”

 

“If my daughter wants them to strip they’ll damn well strip!” The man spat, not backing away from Elder Midate.

 

“Your daughter is under my protection as her chaperone, but so are these dominants! You cannot force them to strip!”

 

“That submissive made the dominants fight to the death and you’re saying that’s better than stripping?”

 

“The laws have been changed because of that meeting, no submissive can force a dominant to do anything they don’t want to do! They have a right not to strip if they don’t want to.”

 

“My daughter wants to sample them before she picks, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

 

“It’s not happening!” Midate ground out furiously.

 

The man didn’t bother with responding, he threw a fast right hand at Midate, who reacted instinctually and moved out of the way, gripping the thrown hand and twisting it, forcing the man to writhe on the floor and cry out in pain as he wrenched his shoulder joint, just this side of dislocating it.

Cassander roared with laughter and he wasn’t the only one as Elsie hopped around in her tiny skirt, showing that she had chosen not to wear any underwear underneath it, calling for someone to help her Daddy.

Nasta shook his head at the display. It turned his stomach and he silently agreed with Sixten, no daughter of his was ever going to get away with this sort of behaviour or dress code. He would not allow it, not ever.

 

“I’m leaving.” One dominant called out loudly from near the middle of the group. “This is pathetic, that submissive thing is pathetic and if the Counsel doesn’t step in and handle submissive rearing more closely and more strictly, then you’re going to end up with submissives being rejected from now on. They’re getting worse and no decent dominant is ever going to want the likes of _that_.”

 

There was actual applause as the dominant made good on his word and turned and left the room, leaving the meeting and it set off a chain reaction as nearly every dominant left the room, leaving Midate with a stern pride in his dark eyes and Elsie in tears as all who remained were older, more desperate dominants who wouldn’t make good matches and definitely didn’t have the youthful body she had been looking for.

Nasta breathed a sigh as he stepped into the cool February air. He said goodbye to Sixten, who Apparated away almost immediately to work out his frustrations with his dragons. He was about to do the same when a voice called out to him and he stopped and turned.

 

“Hey, Delericey.”

 

Nasta looked at Max and raised a single eyebrow questioningly.

 

“It was your birthday yesterday right?”

 

He nodded curtly. “You know it was.”

 

“Here, I got you something.”

 

Max threw the wrapped present at him and Nasta grinned ruefully as he tore it open and found a Muggle electric razor. His hand automatically rose to rub at the short growth of scruff on his chin even though he had shaved that morning and he looked questioningly at Max, who shrugged with a wide grin.

 

“It has to work better than the charms you’re using; you still look like a bear.”

 

“Thank you Max.”

 

“Happy birthday Nas, tell Sanex that Caesar wants to meet up.”

 

“Why wasn’t Caesar here today?”

 

“He’s sick, Dad adamantly refused to let him come, he’s going to be pissed he missed the fight between Midate and that twit though.”

 

Nasta snorted and nodded and Max was gone. Nasta rudely dropped the paper from his gift onto the front garden path of Elsie’s home before he Apparated away himself, he went home first to drop off his gift and changed into better work wear before Apparating to the Welsh reserve. He wished once again that he would find the perfect submissive for him some when soon, his one bedroomed apartment was getting stifling and lonely and he wasn’t getting any younger.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Those on my Facebook may recognise this one from a conversation that spawned it. It may not be very long, but I still like it well enough.
> 
> This is my second update out of four today for my Valentine’s gift to my readers! I hope the third will be ready soon and I hope I can get the fourth out at all at this point.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	28. Daddy Draco

Daddy Draco

Draco groaned as a wailing cry disturbed his beauty sleep. The bed shifted and Max, who was lying beside him, rolled over and stuffed his head under the pillow.

 

“Nas! It’s your turn.” He whined as the crying didn’t stop or lessen.

 

“No it’s not. I did the midnight feed, get up and feed him!” Nasta replied tiredly.

 

Max groaned and buried himself further into the bed, all the while Leolin cried his tiny lungs out. Harry stirred, somewhere on the far side of the bed and his messy head popped out of the duvet.

 

“Leolin.” He exclaimed, his voice so tired that Draco sat up.

 

“I’ve got him love, get back to sleep.”

 

Draco forced himself out of the warm bed, snatched his wand off the bedside table and scooped Leolin up gently, carrying him down the stairs and into the living room cum kitchenette. It was so cold that he worriedly tucked the blanket around the delicate, vulnerable Leolin tighter.

He boiled the kettle, used to the Muggle equipment now after so long using it, and tried to settle Leolin down as his little face, flushed bright red, screwed up tightly as he cried.

 

“Forget you being Nasta’s baby; you have the appetite of Max.” Draco told him seriously.

 

Draco held Leolin tightly in the crook of his left arm as he set up the bottle and formula powder one handed, which had taken him a month to do without knocking anything over or spilling anything, shivering in the cold air as he poured the boiling water into the bottle and a small wave of his wand cooled it down to an acceptable temperature.

He tested it against his forearm, just in case, before trying to get the teat of the bottle into Leolin’s tiny mouth. He did this carefully after the tongue lashing Harry had given him when he had accidentally pushed the bottle teat up Leolin’s nose when he had tried to feed him half asleep.

He held him, leaning against the counter top, trying to stay awake as Leolin fed. It was almost four in the morning and he was very tired. Though to be fair, they all were.

Leolin finished his feed, leaving just a small amount of milk in the bottom of the bottle. Draco hefted him over his shoulder and patted his back gently and carefully. He never knew how much force to use, so he started off very gently and got increasingly harder until a little burp had him pulling the tiny boy off of his shoulder and wrapping him back up tighter in his cellular blanket which had come loose.

He got a tea towel and wetted the corner under the tap, using it to wipe the spill of milk on Leolin’s chin, using a dry corner to then wipe away the dampness.

 

“Come on love, let’s get you back up into your bed so you can sleep some more.” He said softly, smiling indulgently as Leolin yawned, his tiny mouth stretched open to its fullest, his little nose scrunching up adorably.

 

He wrapped the blanket around him once more, as Leolin’s yawn and wriggling had dislodged it. It was too cold for him to be unwrapped; he worried so much that he would get sick that he was almost obsessive about him being wrapped up, although Nasta always told him with an adoring smile that he could be unwrapped sometimes without consequence, Draco didn’t want to take that chance. He was sure with Leolin he’d get worry wrinkles before he was thirty. Then, he wasn’t much better with his other children either.

Draco climbed back up to the platform, seeing the other four were fast asleep again, he settled Leolin back into the bassinet, meticulously placing him so that his feet were at the bottom so the blanket couldn’t slip over his head. He tucked him in, folding the blanket under his chin, making sure his feet and hands were tucked in, before pressing a soft kiss to his pale pink cheek.

 

“I love you kid, sleep well.” He whispered softly, before turning to the bed and slipping back in, actually moaning at the wash of warmth that Max’s body brought and he snuggled up tight to that large back.

 

Max huffed at the press of cold skin against him and rolled over, throwing a huge, muscled arm around him, pulling him in tighter to his boiling hot chest, Draco settled down and pressed his hands against Max’s stomach, making the larger man groan in sleep again at the uncomfortable coldness, but Draco smirked lightly as his body warmed up again. Max made the best heater.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco tried dressing Regan and was getting more and more frustrated as the little boy wriggled and screamed as he tried to get the little shirt onto him. He’d never known a baby like him, what four month old knew enough to not want to be dressed?

 

“Regan, stay still!” He tried, using his best authoritative voice.

 

Of course it didn’t deter the boy, who threw his head back into his shoulder, the crack it made had Draco abandoning the shirt and standing up quickly, placing Regan on the table.

 

“Max!” He called out, calling the one mate who knew the most about first aid.

 

Max appeared at his shoulder. “What’s the matter? Can’t get the little rascal dressed?”

 

“He threw his head against my shoulder; it made a hell of a crack.”

 

Max sobered immediately and took out his wand, he cast a spell on Regan.

 

“Don’t use magic on him!” Harry cried out from the settee, where he was expertly undressing a thrashing Tegan with ease.

 

“It’s an emergency Harry.” Max said as he read through the parchment he had printed the magical scan read out on. “Magic can be used in emergencies, or very sparingly, though it is frowned on if it isn’t an emergency.”

 

“How is he?” Draco asked concernedly, holding Regan’s hands gently, trying not to work himself up over something that could turn out to be nothing.

 

“Absolutely fine.” Max told him, using a huge hand to pull his head into a kiss. “You worry so much Draco, he’s fine.”

 

“He stopped crying so suddenly after he hit his head though.” Draco said.

 

“Yeah, because you stopped trying to dress him.” Max pointed out with a laugh.

 

Draco sighed in relief at knowing nothing was wrong with his son. The guilt of being the one to injure him would have eaten away at him. He dressed Regan on the kitchen table, feeling his heart breaking at the screams and thrashing.

Once done, he let Regan squirm for a bit to get used to the new clothes on his body, before he picked him up and kissed his head, brushing his fingers through the black hair he was growing in.

 

“I love you Regan, please do try not to injure yourself too much, okay?” He told him softly, before Harry called to him and he moved into the living room, carrying a gurgling Regan with him.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco wrapped an arm around Farren and pulled him back more securely against his stomach, letting him sit up and look around lazily.

Draco loved how calm and laidback Farren was; he could just sit there quietly and look around curiously. He only cried if he was wet or startled, because what he did when he wanted food could not be considered crying, not by a long shot. Draco had heard dying animals that were quieter than Farren’s screaming for food.

Draco shifted into the corner of the settee, pulling Farren with him. He picked up the current novel he was reading and reclined himself and Farren back against the cushions. He started reading aloud quietly, just loud enough for Farren to hear him over the screaming of the children Harry and Blaise were playing with on the floor. Farren wasn’t really interested in toys that he couldn’t eat.

It made Draco wonder if there were educational toys that had flavours or could be eaten, because he didn’t like that Farren was left out of the games and playing that the other four got to be involved with.

Farren would play sometimes, but it was a rare occurrence, he was much more likely to sit reclined somewhere, just watching and observing until food time came around.

But still, Draco absolutely loved sitting here with Farren in his lap, leaning against his chest and listening to him reading aloud, sometimes cooing softly if he paused for too long or when he hit the page with his chubby hand when he turned it over in an attempt to help him.

Harry boiled the kettle and asked him if he wanted a cup of tea, he turned to look over the back of the settee.

 

“Yes, thank you Harry.”

 

“Ah!” Farren burst out unhappily, smacking both his hands against the pages of the open book.

 

Draco chuckled. “Alright, alright, I’m reading.”

 

Draco started reading once again and Farren settled himself down to listen to him reading once again. Not stopping even when a grinning Harry handed him his cup of tea, he managed to say ‘Thank you Harry’ in between his sentence, which Farren didn’t notice as he didn’t actually understand what was being said, he just liked the soothing, rhythmic tone he was using as he read.

 

“It’s almost time for a feed.” Max said an hour or so later. “What’s the bet he realises and starts crying before we’re finished?”

 

“I’m not taking that bet.” Blaise snorted. “He cries at the mere thought of getting food.”

 

Draco rolled his eyes and kissed the top of Farren’s head, his dark brown hair soft under his lips.

 

“Don’t listen to them love. You cry all you want for your food, that’s how you get noticed. You can rule the world one day Farren and I’m going to teach you how.” Draco swore as he squeezed Farren’s middle, nuzzling the top of his head.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco pulled Tegan back in between his legs, her beautiful little white and pale pink dress that he had bought especially for her, along with matching tights and lacy nappy cover, pristine and perfectly in place.

He sat her between his legs and gave her a teething ring to play with. Her gorgeous black hair was just about long enough now to justify using a soft bristled brush on it, he argued with the others that she needed it brushed daily, when in reality it probably just needed combing through a few times with the fingers. He loved his daily bonding time with her, where he would brush her hair into perfection, he didn’t always dress her up, but his Mother had asked for some photographs so he was dressing all of the kids up and taking photos for her.

He’d done the boys with no problems, but he wanted his little girl to be just perfect. He’d roped the others into keeping the boys clean while he got Tegan ready, he held her gently under the chin and smoothed the brush through her silky, baby fine hair and smiled automatically at her happy gurgling and squirming as the brush tickled the top of her head.

 

He laughed along with her. “Do you like that sweetheart? I told your Mummy and your other Dads’ that you’d like having your hair done, but they didn’t believe me.” He huffed. “Shows what they know, right baby girl?”

 

Draco finished off her outfit with a white, lacy headband with a pale pink flower on it. He turned her around and looked at her with a smile.

 

“You look absolutely beautiful Tegan. Truly the cream of the crop. Now, let’s get some photos of you and then we can sit you with your brothers and get a group photo, though we may have to shrink Leolin's beanbag and get him in the photo on that, because he’s too little to sit up on his own yet.”

 

Draco carried her out into the living room and found his lovers all trying to keep the boys from scruffing up their outfits.

 

“Can we hurry this up Draco? I don’t think they like being dressed up smart and Braiden keeps trying to tug his clothes off.” Harry told him.

 

“Look at Tegan and it’ll all be worth it.” Draco told them surely, holding Tegan out for them to see her. Harry actually teared up.

 

“Oh she looks gorgeous!” He sniffed. “Well done Draco.”

 

“Hey, you should be saying thanks to Nasta, he made her.” Max grinned.

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “Ignore him Draco; you’ve done so much work for this photo shoot, thank you.”

 

Draco smirked at the praise, trying not to show how pleased he was at Harry’s words. He got Tegan into a pose on the settee and Nasta and Blaise both started taking photos, with the both of them there was a bigger chance of capturing a brilliant photograph of her.

After that, they posed all of them together, in age order, Tegan sat in between Farren and Regan, both in their smart little dress robes. It took an age to get them sorted and then to keep them there when Braiden started crying for Harry, Calix started squirming and tugging on his robes and then Leolin needed a change.

But in the end they managed to get what they needed and with a sigh of relief, they changed the kids back into comfortable clothes and Draco took Tegan to change her from her lacy dress, that everyone else was afraid they’d damage if they touched and then cuddled Tegan as she chewed on the ear of a stuffed cat once she was back into a soft, pale blue sleepsuit. She was his only little girl, his only daughter and because of that she was special, but he loved all six of his children, regardless of sex, age or personality, he loved them all and just because Tegan was his only daughter at the moment, didn’t mean she would have any preferential treatment.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Draco shook his head when Braiden reached out for him and he picked him up with a soft smile. Braiden giggled wetly, his chin covered in drool. He was cutting another tooth so he was drooling a lot more than usual.

 

“Da da!” Braiden said looking at his face with a happy, partially gummy grin.

 

“Hello Braiden, how are you today? Do you want to spend some time with your Daddy Draco?”

 

Braiden squealed and wriggled in his arms as Draco tickled his chubby belly with his fingers.

 

Braiden looked at him, before he pointed to his favoured pile of multi sized blocks. Draco sat down and held Braiden between his legs, letting his son play with his blocks, nodding and grinning when Braiden turned to him with a block, babbling and ‘talking’ looking to him for an answer, wanting a conversation.

 

 “Yes Braiden, this block is the biggest, it goes on the bottom of the tower.” Draco informed him.

 

Braiden giggled happily and kicked his legs, his whole body squirming. He turned back and meticulously placed the block on the carpet, his gorgeous indigo eyes looking for the next block, he picked one up and showed it to him, babbling and turning the block, passing it from little hand to little hand, thrusting it out at him questioningly.

 

“That’s right Braiden, that’s the next block for your tower.” He nodded and grinned.

 

Braiden turned back and placed the block on top of the one already on the floor. He picked up another one and turned for his advice.

 

“No Braiden, this one isn’t next, it’s too small.” He said as he took the block gently from his hand and handed him the right one. “This one goes next.”

 

Braiden screeched and did his body wiggle again and carried on building his tower. He picked up another block and Draco again corrected him, before Braiden stacked the last and smallest block on the top.

Draco clapped him enthusiastically and Braiden giggled and tried to copy him clumsily, but it made him smile none the less.

 

He kissed Braiden. “I’m very proud of you Braiden love, you stacked that tower perfectly, I’m sure you’re going to make a brilliant architect when you’re older.”

 

Braiden grinned at him, before he took his whole hand and knocked the entire tower flying, laughing uproariously as they tumbled and landed around their feet.

 

“Or a demolition contractor.” Draco chuckled.  

 

Draco picked him up and kissed him. “I love you baby boy. You’re my son, my firstborn son and I love you so very much, you have to get better at bath time though.”

 

Draco cuddled him tightly and stood up, a quick check of the time showed that it was almost feed time, so he went to the kitchenette to boil the kettle, holding a curious Braiden away from the steam coming from the kettle.

 

“No, that’s bad to touch.” He told Braiden, holding his tiny hand, bringing it to his mouth to kiss it. “You can’t ever get hurt, I don’t know what I’d do if any of my babies ever got hurt.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco laughed and didn’t know how he had been roped into doing this. Calix had spit up all over himself and Harry had already been in a stressy mood. Harry had somehow convinced him to share his bath with Calix.

He was worried the water was too hot, worried it wasn’t hot enough, worried that the bubbles were too harsh on his delicate skin, worried about letting him go in the huge expanse of water and very worried that Calix would wee or poo in the water while he was also in it. He was very worried about that.

He soon calmed down though when Calix absolutely loved being in the big bath. He stretched himself out, played with the bubbles, pinched Draco’s skin, which made him grimace and wince, but the look on his very delicate looking son’s face more than made up for it.

He splashed him in the water and nuzzled his face, his chest and his belly, washing him and playing with him, listening to his happy screeches of laughter and it was amazing. He could see this becoming a regular part of bath time now, all of them could take a baby into the big bath with them, it wouldn’t even been unfair as Leolin was far too little to go in the big bath, Harry was worried that the baby bath was too big for him and hated bathing him in it. Plus the bacteria and germs the big bath held would probably make Leolin sick and he wouldn’t allow that to happen.

 

“Do you want to wash your hair Calix love?” He asked, even though his son couldn’t understand him, but Calix giggled anyway.

 

Draco got him into his arms and dipped his head into the water, obsessively making sure it didn’t get into his eyes and Calix screamed in absolute joy, laughing as Draco righted him and scrubbed the baby shampoo into his hair, lathering it up as Calix sat on his thighs so the water wasn’t too deep to go over his neck.

 

“You are my very sweet little son aren’t you?”

 

Calix babbled and giggled as he put his hands into his own hair and grabbed a handful of his shampoo bubbles.

 

“Don’t put that into your mouth, okay love?” Draco said, keeping an eye on both of his hands.

 

Draco dunked his hands into the bath water, dunked Calix’s into the water, before tipping him back to wash the shampoo from his hair.

 

“There we go! All done and clean with no more sick patches, let’s say we get out, get you dried and dressed and settled down with that blanket you love so much, hmm?” Draco asked, sitting up and standing out of the water, unplugging the bath and stepping out carefully onto the non-slip bathmat.

 

He got the two towels from the radiator, glad that Harry had come in and dumped Calix on him only after he had washed and cleaned himself and had had enough forethought to put a towel on the radiator for Calix.

He wrapped him up and wrapped himself up. He cuddled Calix dry, babbling to him, glad that none of the others could see or hear him, though he knew they wouldn’t tease him with any real heat, but still.

He got Calix into a nappy, a bodysuit and into a sleepsuit; he rolled his eyes at Max’s choice of a pink sleepsuit with little yellow flowers on it. It had been bought for Tegan, but it was clean, warm and dry, so he put it on Calix anyway. It didn’t really matter.

He dried himself off more, before pulling his boxers and sleeping trousers on one handed, before he threw both towels into the hamper and left the bathroom, turning off the light as he went.

He sat on the settee with Calix cuddled in his arms, his soft white blanket wrapped around his fist and being chewed on in his mouth as he told the others about the adventure in the bath and how he thought it was a good idea to do it more often.

They broke off into their own conversations and Draco fell silent, left to relax on the settee with Calix, his beautiful baby boy who he had introduced to the big bath for the first time.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This idea came to me just three hours ago and I hope that now you have read it, some of you actually realise that Draco see’s the six children he has as his.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	29. Fever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is set in the FUTURE! Four and a half years to be precise. There are children here that you will not have seen before nor have been mentioned, even in passing, in the main fic, but they are real and they will be ‘born’ in the main fic.  
> I have taken great care to give you their short names or nicknames only, and have not used gender specific nouns or pronouns so as not to reveal their genders, but this sometimes makes the text or speech a bit awkward, I tried to fix this as much as possible and I never used ‘it’ to describe the children, but having their full names as well as he/she, his/her barred from use, it does cause some problems, so please watch out for that.

Fever

 

Harry curled up next to Draco into a tighter ball while still holding his lover around the waist and brushing his forehead onto a shoulder blade gently. He wanted to sleep for a little longer; he could just feel that it was very early. Too early to be awake, which is why he suddenly shot up and looked around blearily for something that could have woken him, for something must have woken him after all, and when he found the bedroom to be still and silent, as well as the rest of the house as much as he could discern, he slipped out of bed and went to listen at his children’s doors.

The first two were quiet and a poke in of his head showed nothing untoward happening. His only set of identical twins, who were in the nursery adjacent to his bedroom a bit further up the corridor, were silent and when he peeked his head in on them, they were fast asleep in their twin cots, light breaths only just stirring the hair covering their faces and the blankets wrapped around little hands. He covered them over, brushed the hair from their faces and kissed them gently before moving on.

Leolin was in his own cot, despite having put on weight and height, he was still too little to have his own bed for fear of rolling out of it, not that he complained much, he didn’t talk much, merely grunted and screeched despite Harry’s enthusiastic encouragement, but Harry didn’t mind, Nasta had removed all doubt of his parenting skills concerning Leolin from his mind long ago and seeing other Faerie babies had helped immensely and put a lot of his behaviours and actions into a better perspective.

Going into the room Regan and Tegan shared, Harry was unsurprised to find them in the same bed together, he had since gotten used to his daughter crawling into the bed with her brother during the night or vice versa, he saw no reason to stop it when they were only four years old.

He checked on them both critically before tucking them in more securely, smiling at the way Tegan had her younger brother in a protective choke hold. He chuckled softly and loosened her hold on Regan’s neck and moved her arm lower down, around his shoulders instead.

He left them and went next door, into Calix and Farren’s room; it was still a mess even though he’d told Max to help the boys clean it up. Farren at four year’s old was the size of a large five year old or a small six year old, Max was so proud of his little bruiser of a son, who had taken over Braiden in height and weight the summer just passed. Harry just smiled and rolled his eyes every time this happened within earshot of him and made sure it was out of earshot of the kids too.

Calix was a different story, he was dainty and light and Harry just knew he would be a lanky teenager when he got to that age. He wasn’t worried about Calix in the least, he knew he would grow and he was very bright for a four year old and Harry was very proud of him, he kissed his cheek and tucked him over, he wondered yet again if he should give them all separate bedrooms as he maneuvered his way through toys and games and clothes strewn about, it might look better if all this mess was divided amongst two rooms and not just jammed all into the one, he’d have to have a talk with Max about his sons’ messy tendencies.

He went to Braiden’s room at the end of the corridor, he had been asked if he wanted to share a room with his brothers, but he had shaken his head no and told them that he was the oldest. Harry smiled as he remembered that conversation, as they had been worried Braiden felt left out or isolated from his siblings. They shouldn’t have worried as Braiden had always loved his own space and privacy.

Harry opened the door to Braiden’s lavish jungle themed bedroom, Max was sure that this was the reason Braiden didn’t want to share his room. His love for animals, particularly wild animals, had only grown as he got older and Nasta had had the amazing idea to paint his bedroom like a jungle scene. It had taken forever to find a jungle themed bed for him with matching sheets and covers, but for Braiden they had searched far and wide until they had found it.

Harry climbed the ladder to reach the bed and when he did, he found the reason he had woken up, his Mother’s intuition had woken him as he looked to Braiden’s red flushed cheeks and his teary indigo eyes as he wiggled on his mattress uncomfortably.

 

“Why didn’t you come and get me love?” Harry asked as he picked Braiden up and placed him on his shoulder so he could step down the ladder without fear of dropping his oldest son.

 

“My tummy feels bad when I move.” Braiden told him quietly, in that soft, heart wrenching way that only sick children had.

 

Harry sighed and carried Braiden to the bathroom and sat on the toilet, Braiden on his lap after he got the first aid kit down from the locked cabinet up high, where curious little fingers couldn’t reach, even if they could somehow manage to unlock the safety proof door.

A quick check with the thermometer showed that Braiden had a temperature and Harry used a damp flannel on the back of his neck to cool him down.

He took the rehydration salts from the first aid kit and propping Braiden over his shoulder; he put the kit back into the top cupboard, locked it and carried him down the stairs, opening and closing the safety gates as he went and got them into the living room.

He settled Braiden down on the settee with a blanket before going to get him something to drink; he had to keep him hydrated with fluids, boiling the kettle for a cup of tea, a check of his watch showed that Xabe would be waking for a bottle soon.

Harry carried a beaker of very weak fruit squash to Braiden and helped prop him up, he hadn’t been sick yet, so he hadn’t bothered with the rehydration salts, but they were there at hand just in case.

 

“Are you tired love? You should get some more sleep if you can.”

 

“Xabie will be awake soon.” Braiden told him.

 

“You’re a very good, loving big brother, but you leave Xabie to me. You need to rest.”

 

“You take care of the babies when you’re ill Mummy.”

 

“That’s because I’m your Mummy and I’d look after you no matter what, a little sniffle isn’t going to stop me, but you don’t have to do that Braiden, you’re a good brother, a brilliant helper, but the best way you can help Mummy now is by staying here and getting better.”

 

“Okay. I can do that.”

 

Harry couldn’t help but smile at his fever flushed son and he kissed his head.

 

“Get some sleep Braiden, call me if you need me, if you need to be sick, you have a bowl here, your drink is in reach. I’ll be back soon, okay?”

 

Braiden nodded and snuggled down. “If you go upstairs Mummy, can you get EB for me, please?”

 

Harry brushed the damp hair from Braiden’s face. “Of course I will love.”

 

Harry went upstairs to the raucous screaming of a newborn baby. Xabe was awake and was not best pleased not to have a bottle immediately present for suckling.

Harry slipped into their bedroom and sighed, Nasta was up, awake and heading out to feed the little squalling royal.

 

“Braiden’s sick.” He told them softly.

 

“What?!” Came the shout from the bed and Blaise was sat bolt upright, his indigo eyes wide, the very same eyes that were fever glazed downstairs.

 

Harry sighed. “He has a tummy bug and a fever, he’s on the settee, I’m going to keep an eye on him, I’m going to get EB for him now, he should be fine, but he needs a close eye on him.”

 

Blaise was up and awake in moments, planning on going to see their oldest child, slipping into his boxer shorts quickly for a modicum of decency.

 

“I’m going to feed Xabe.” Nasta excused himself as their newborn carried on crying and wailing for food, only getting louder as food wasn’t given immediately.

 

“You should be resting.” Draco croaked tiredly. “You’re stomach needs to heal, you were told not to lift the kids.”

 

Harry’s hand slipped to the caesarean cut and rubbed gently.

 

“I’m fine Draco, I promise, I just want to see to Braiden, he’s very unhappy.”

 

Harry went back into Braiden’s bedroom and hunted through all the stuffed lions, dragons, giraffes, elephants and snakes to find the soft, cuddly rabbit that Braiden had gotten for his third Easter and had aptly named Easter Bunny, EB for short.

He carried it back down the stairs and went into the living room and found Braiden propping himself up on his elbow, looking through to the noises from the kitchen.

 

“Did Xabe’s crying wake you up?” Harry asked as he tucked EB into Braiden’s grasp.

 

Braiden nodded and snuggled his little rabbit. “Xabie was crying really loudly.”

 

Harry chuckled. “I know. Daddy Nasta is sorting it out; you don’t need to worry about anything.”

 

“What if Xabie needs me?”

 

“I’m sure Xabe can manage without your wonderful help for a few days Braiden love, you need to rest and let Daddy Nasta sort out the new baby.”

 

“Is Daddy Nasta staying up?” Braiden asked in a small, uncertain voice.

 

“Yes he is.” Nasta said as he came into the living room, Xabe happily sleeping in the crook of his arm after a good feeding.

 

“Is Xabie okay Daddy?”

 

“Yes love, you just focus on you. I’m going to put Xabe back to bed and then I’ll be back down okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

Harry got Braiden to take a few more sips of squash before tucking him up with EB.

 

“I’ll keep everything quiet for you today, alright Braiden?”

 

“I promised Calix I’d play farm house with him.”

 

“Calix can play with the others.” Harry assured him at Braiden’s distraught look at letting down his younger brother. “You’re not well enough baby.”

 

“I’m not a baby. Xabie’s a baby” Braiden insisted miserably, his bright, cherry red cheeks puffed out with his pout.

 

“You’ll always be my baby.” Harry said right back, giving him a kiss and tucking him up tighter. “Now you just go to sleep and rest.”

 

Harry went into the kitchen to make a cup of tea for him and Nasta, only to find Blaise had beaten him to it.

 

“How is he?”

 

“Miserable. He’s more worried about not helping with Xabe and letting Calix down; apparently he promised to play farm animals with him today.” Harry said as he picked up his favourite mug with his favourite honey tea inside and took a deep gulp.

 

“I’ll speak to Calix before he can pester him. Do you think it’ll last long?” Blaise asked, sipping his own coffee, savouring every mouthful.

 

“I’d think a few days.” Nasta said as he came back into the kitchen and kissed them both hard, before picking up his own mug of tea.

 

“Xabe go down for you alright?”

 

“Yeah, but you were right, as always about the kids, that one is a right diva; forget the family Princess, we now have a complete and utter royal who wants all the attention, all the time.”

 

Harry chuckled.

 

“What about Accident and Emergency?” Blaise snorted. “They’re right royals too.”

 

Harry turned on him in a flash and punched his shoulder hard. “I’ve warned you and Max, do not call them that!”

 

“You _were_ the one to call them A and E in the first place, identical twins no less, what did you expect?” Blaise pointed out with a teasing grin. “We have a right horde of little royals running about.”

 

“No thanks to your spoiling.” Harry grumbled.

 

Nasta laughed. “Oh as if you haven’t spoilt them either? I heard about the extra scoop of ice cream after dinner last week.”

 

Harry grinned unrepentantly.

 

“I won’t mention the sixty pound doll’s pram you bought for Calix when he saw it on TV and wanted it right away, then.” Harry chuckled.

 

Nasta almost blushed and shuffled his feet as he remembered the day he had gone out after work and bought that damned pram. His mates hadn’t let him live it down since, but Calix had been so happy and thankful as he put his favourite doll, that Braiden had dressed meticulously for him, into the pram and pushed it around the house for the next week.

 

“He helped me in the garden for hours.” Nasta said stubbornly. “He was the only one to run around and put those leaves in the bin for me. He deserved a present.”

 

“Yeah, a few Sickles in his jar and a sticker.” Blaise chuckled. “Not an incredibly expensive pram that he could have waited for his Birthday to have.”

 

“I don’t regret it and I’m not taking that pram back from him.” Nasta said defiantly.

 

“Like we’d take it from him now.” Harry rolled his eyes. “He’s in love with it; he still won’t stop gushing about the special gift that Daddy Nasta got just for him. The other kids are jealous and think you like him more than them.”

 

Nasta scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to do that or to single him out in such a way.”

 

“I know, I’ve told the kids that Calix got it for helping you in the garden for so long, so the next time you have a job to do, I’ll think you’ll find a lot more helpers rushing around after you and I hope you know what each of them wants, because they’ll all expect it the next day.”

 

Nasta groaned and sat at the large table with a slump, drinking his tea with a frown.

 

“Aw, don’t pout Nas, it’ll be alright. They’ll get bored soon enough, after all, how long can they last when all they have to do is easy, odd jobs every now and then and then get such an amazing gift at the end of it?”

 

Nasta groaned louder and let his head fall onto the table.

 

“I don’t feel well Daddy.”

 

Harry looked over to find Braiden, in his little lion pyjamas, clutching EB and looking very pale under his red cheeks.

 

“I told you to stay on the settee and to call for me if you needed me.” Harry chastised without any real heat.

 

“I heard you out here.” Braiden said, snuggling EB tightly in his stick like arms.

 

Nasta picked him up and held the five year old tightly, but not too tightly around his belly.

 

“We’re going to make you feel better baby, I promise.”

 

“I’m not a baby.” Braiden insisted. “I’m five whole years old now.” Holding out one hand to show five fingers, just in case they needed to be reminded how many five actually was.

 

The three of them shared loving, indulgent smiles and Harry almost melted at his cuteness.

 

“Did you want me to tuck you back up?”

 

“I need a wee.”

 

Nasta smiled and carried Braiden to the downstairs bathroom. Harry turned to Blaise and sighed.

 

“He really is unwell, but he doesn’t want to admit it.” Blaise observed.

 

“I hope he gets better soon, I hate seeing any of them sick or in pain.” Harry said unhappily.

 

“Do you think A and E will wake up soon?”

 

“If you don’t stop calling them that the next time I give you oral I’m going to accidentally bite off one of your balls.”

 

“It’s not an accident if you plan it.” Blaise teased.

 

Harry laughed and checked his watch. “They should be up soon, all of them will be. Where is Max?”

 

“Right here love.” Max said, sweeping into the room with Calix in his arms. “This little guy woke me up for a morning snuggle.”

 

Calix giggled and happily went to Harry when Max handed him over, the four year old was a very bubbly little boy and Harry loved cuddling him.

 

“Calix love?” Blaise got his attention softly.

 

“Morning Dada Blay.” Calix bent forward for a kiss, which Blaise readily gave.

 

“You know Braiden was going to play farm animals with you?”

 

“Farm house.” Calix corrected.

 

“Braiden is feeling poorly today, so can you play with one of your other brothers or your sister?”

 

“Bay is sick?” Calix’s face fell immediately and his bottom lip quivered.

 

Harry held him tightly.

 

“He’s going to be alright Calix, I promise, but he needs lots of rest and quiet, do you understand?”

 

Calix nodded. “New baby will wake him up.”

 

“No, Xabe is going to be kept away from him, so he can rest in peace.”

 

Calix nodded again.

 

“How is Braiden feeling?” Max asked as he put a bowl of porridge and banana slices in front of Calix with a spoon and a beaker of diluted apple juice.

 

“Miserable at the moment, he’s upset at the thought of not being able to help with Xabe and unable to play, but he’s steadily getting worse.”

 

“He is getting worse.” Nasta told them as he walked back in, his face tight with upset.

 

“What’s happened, do we need a Healer?”

 

“He’s got diarrhoea as well and he’s started vomiting. No Healer needed yet unless you want to just confirm that he’s got gastroenteritis, we need to rehydrate him though, he’s lost a lot of fluid.”

 

Harry reached into his pyjama pocket and pulled out the rehydration salts and handed them over to Nasta.

 

“Mummy!” Came the quiet cry from the living room and Harry was standing up and going to his poorly son immediately.

 

Braiden was crying and was wiggling around in discomfort. Harry went to him and held him gently.

 

“Daddy Nasta put me back in a nappy Mummy, I’m not a baby.”

 

“It’s just for now Braiden, just in case you have an accident. Please, no one else will know, I promise.”

 

“I don’t feel well.”

 

“I know, but you’ll be better very soon.” Harry said as he cuddled Braiden and moved them both until he was on the settee with Braiden in his lap.

 

Nasta came in with a beaker of the rehydration salts and handed it to Braiden, who took a few sips.

 

“Drink it slowly, okay?” Nasta told him.

 

Braiden nodded softly as he sipped.

 

“Can’t drink no more.”

 

Nasta put the beaker on the coffee table.

 

“Hand him to me love, I’ll check over him, but I think Draco needs a hand with the others. They’re banging around like a herd of elephants up there; they’ll wake up Xabe soon.”

 

Harry handed Braiden over and Nasta took his place, holding Braiden in his arms.

 

“I used to do this with you when you were the same size as Xabe.”

 

“I was never that small.” Braiden pouted.

 

Nasta chuckled. “I’ll show you photos if you’ll like. You were smaller than Xabe even. We loved you so much when you were born and we love you just as much now.”

 

“Will I get better?”

 

“Of course you will, I know it’s miserable at the moment and uncomfortable, but in a few days you’ll be just fine.”

 

“Does that mean I can’t go to school?”

 

“I’m sorry Braiden; I don’t think you’ll be well enough on Monday for school.”

 

“But the others, they have nursery Monday too.”

 

“You get to stay here with Mummy, Daddy Draco and your youngest siblings, all to yourself.”

 

Much to Nasta’s horror, that thought set Braiden off crying and Blaise came into the living room and sat beside him, stroking Braiden’s tummy gently.

 

“What happened?” He asked.

 

“I’ve just told him he can’t go to school on Monday.” Nasta sighed.

 

Blaise chuckled. “He loves school, you know that. Telling him he can’t go is like me telling you that you can’t go near anything to do with dragons. Of course he’s upset.”

 

Blaise kissed Braiden’s forehead and rubbed his arm comfortingly.

 

“Daddy.” Braiden sniffled.

 

“I’m here love. You need to calm down or you’ll make yourself sick again, you don’t want that do you?”

 

“No.” Braiden warbled out and it tugged on every heart string he had.

 

“No Tegan, into the kitchen sweetheart.” Harry’s voice came from the hallway. “You need your breakfast before anything else.”

 

“I want to play.” She said stubbornly.

 

“You can play after you’ve eaten.” Draco said sternly. “Now into the kitchen and eat your breakfast.”

 

“Thank Merlin for Daddy Draco’s stern approach.” Blaise grinned.

 

“His take no attitude and no arguing assertiveness, but give him a tea cup of water and he becomes Daddy Princess.” Nasta chuckled.

 

Blaise laughed, remembering Tegan’s Princess Club, which naturally included dressing up Regan and Calix in costume dresses, Tegan wearing a plastic tiara and Draco wearing an over large hat, sat in a tiny chair, his knees up to his chin as he talked to Tegan, Regan and Calix about ‘Princess’ things over ‘tea’. He always got a backache from hunching over after one of Tegan’s meetings and Harry usually gave him a back rub before bed to ease the discomfort.

Braiden was now fast asleep and Nasta slid out from under him, placing him on the settee and tucking him over with the blanket, making sure he had EB in his arms still before going into the kitchen chaos with Blaise.

Harry was feeding Leolin his porridge, the four year old only had nine teeth, but no matter how few it seemed, Leolin had more teeth than most Faerie babies of his age.

Farren was eating heartily, overseen by Max, who was feeding one of the twins on his knee. Draco had the other twin and they were wrestling with the spoon. Calix was just about finished and Tegan was feeding Regan from her own bowl like she had seen them feeding the twins.

 

“Right, listen up sweet ones.” Nasta called out, being inspired by his earlier talk with Harry and Blaise. “I need help weeding the garden, any takers?”

 

As he had known, Calix was up and bouncing and agreeing happily, he loved everything to do with the garden, from binning the leaves Nasta had raked into a pile, weeding, digging or just being in the garden.

Of course as soon as the others saw Calix offering, remembering the present he had gotten for being helpful, they jumped on the chance.

 

“Right, it’s a big garden, a big job, I think I’m going to need all of you!” Nasta declared. “So eat your breakfast, help Daddy Max clean up and ask Daddy Draco to find your outside clothes and we can go and battle the weed monsters.”

 

Calix rushed to throw his empty plastic bowl into the sink, with the help of a step stool, before clamouring Draco to get his outside clothes.

 

“Alright Calix, calm down.” Draco brushed a big hand through his brown hair. “I’ll sort you out now.”

 

Nasta took the twin he had been feeding and carried on, leaving Draco free to take Farren and Calix to get into their old, garden clothes.

 

“At least it’s not raining.” Nasta offered with a grin when Harry gave him a look.

 

“You watch them and make sure none of them get too cold and you find those presents they want.” Harry said. “And make sure Farren doesn’t eat any more worms and that Tegan doesn’t feed anyone mud or the three little ones don’t get hurt.”

 

“Mumma, where’s Bayan?” Regan asked.

 

“Braiden’s not feeling too well at the minute Regan love. He’s going to stay inside sleeping.”

 

“Will he be okay?” Tegan asked, frowning, her jet black eyebrows lowering over her large hazel eyes.

 

“He’s going to be fine in a few days sweetheart. He just needs to rest and sleep.”

 

Tegan nodded before finishing her own banana porridge before she put both her and Regan’s bowls in the sink, took her brother’s hand and pulled him from the kitchen and up to Daddy Draco.

 

“I feel sorry for her future spouse.” Max chuckled. “She’s definitely going to be wearing the trousers in the relationship, all under a diamond studded, glamorous gown. I wonder if she’ll still wear the tiara.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes and snorted. “She’s turning into a very independent, headstrong young lady. I’m very proud of how she takes care of her brothers.”

 

“Love, she’s four.” Blaise pointed out with a snort. “She rules her nursery class, takes control of all the other children and is a completely indomitable force.”

 

“Good.” Harry huffed. “I won’t have anyone walking all over my little girl.”

 

“Walk over _her_?!” Max laughed. “Harry, she has control issues, personally I think it’s the effect of too much time with Draco.”

 

Harry chuckled at that and rolled his eyes. “Tegan does not have control issues.”

 

“She does. She pulls Regan around like a slave.”

 

“Don’t say it like that!” Harry snapped, getting upset. “It’s cute that she wants to protect him, it’s not like he doesn’t have free time to himself or doesn’t play with the others, he does. I don’t see a problem.”

 

“Fine, but if she grows up with a carpet of men under her feet I’m blaming you.”

 

Harry snorted. “Carpet of men.” He rolled his eyes. “You can be so dramatic. I think you’re the diva, not Xabe.”

 

“Speaking of, when’s the next feed?”

 

Harry checked his watch. “Half an hour. Lai love, don’t do… _that_.”

 

Harry sighed as his youngest child after Xabe pushed the bowl of porridge off of the highchair tray and onto the floor.

 

“Uh-oh.” Lai said sweetly, putting an index finger into a drooling mouth with only three teeth.

 

“Yes I should think so!” Harry said, taking Lai out of the highchair only to have Max take the little monster from him.

 

“Sixteen months old and already a terror! What are we going to do with you hmm?”

 

Draco came in with a ragtag bunch of dressed children, all in faded dungarees, patched jeans, old shirts, wellies and padded coats.

 

“Here you are, all ready to go out to play in the muck and filth. I’ll have a bath ready for when they come back in.”

 

“Mummy! Daddy!” Braiden cried from the living room and immediately four children ran to clamour him.

 

“Stop!” Harry called out loudly, stopping his children in their tracks before they reached Braiden. “Back into the kitchen you four, Braiden isn’t well and unless you want to be sick too and stuck in bed all day, go outside with Daddy Nasta and leave Braiden to rest in peace.”

 

Harry herded the four back into the kitchen with the four others as Max, who had handed baby Lai off to Draco, went to Braiden and crouched on his haunches in front of him.

 

“What’s the matter little man?” He asked softly.

 

“My tummy hurts Daddy.”

 

“Oh, sweet one.” Max slipped an arm under Braiden’s head and pulled him into a hug, one huge hand rubbing softly on the mentioned belly. “It won’t last forever, I promise. We’ll make you feel all better; you just need to do what we tell you too.”

 

“What do I have to do?” Braiden asked weakly.

 

“You need lots of rest, so even if you can’t sleep, no jumping around the room, okay?”

 

Braiden giggled. “Okay. I don’t think I could do that today anyway.”

 

Max’s face softened. “Oh love.” He held him tighter before sitting him up and helping him take a few sips of the Dioralyte solution.

 

“Am I going to be okay Daddy?”

 

“You’ll be just fine soon enough love. You’ll be back in school before you even have a chance to miss it.”

 

Braiden nodded trustingly and his eyes started slipping closed as sleep fought to take him.

 

“Just go to sleep honey and call if you need anything. One of us will always be close enough to hear you.”

 

“Is Calix upset that I can’t play with him?” Braiden asked, his fever glazed indigo eyes closed, his small voice slurred slightly with sleep.

 

“No Braiden, he’s not, you can always play another day, when you’re better, but you focus on yourself for me okay? We need you better to help wrangle the little animals.” Max said, referring to the other children as little animals, like he knew made Braiden giggle and he wasn’t disappointed, even if his giggle was tired and weak.

 

Max tucked him in, pressed a hand to his forehead and grimaced at the heat radiating from the little boy, he took out his wand and tapped Braiden’s forehead gently and got a reading that made his face pull into a worried frown.

He went out to the kitchen and caught Harry’s arm and tugged him to the side.

 

“How high was Braiden’s temperature this morning?” He asked urgently.

 

“One hundred, why? Has it gone up?”

 

“One hundred and two, we have to keep an eye on that, if it gets any higher, I’d rather him see a medical professional.”

 

Harry nodded, his face creased with concern. Max pulled him into a hug.

 

“He’s going to be fine, stop with that face or you’ll have wrinkles.”

 

Harry smiled at that and shook his head softly.

 

“That’s it, much better to have laughter lines than wrinkles.”

 

“I’m sure only you and Draco know the difference.” Harry answered, kissing him.

 

“What have you done with A and E?”

 

“Honestly, stop calling them that!” Harry demanded furiously.

 

“Well where are they?”

 

“Toddling around the garden with Blaise.” Harry answered. “Draco almost threw a fit and asked if I wanted him to roll Xabe in the mud too.”

 

“What did you tell him?” Max asked with a grin.

 

“I asked if he was going to be the one to clean them all up afterwards.”

 

Max laughed before pulling him into a kiss.

 

“Do you think Braiden got the bug from school? Maybe I should ask around the other parents and find out.” Harry asked a while later, after they’d finished kissing.

 

“Don’t worry about that Harry; other people’s kids aren’t our concern. We have more than enough of our own to worry over. If we’re not careful all of the kids will get sick before this is over.”

 

“Oh, they better not be, my heart is breaking at just seeing Braiden so sick, I can’t imagine them all going down with it.”

 

“Wait for the inevitable chicken pox catastrophe, that’s going to be hell.”

 

“What are the chances of them not getting it?” Harry pleaded.

 

“With how many we have and them all being in public school? Ah…zero.” Max replied cheerfully.

 

Max went to the sink and began washing up the breakfast dishes, Harry sighed.

 

“Keep an ear out for Braiden; I’m going to check on Xabe.”

 

“The squalling royal babe.”

 

Harry snorted and smacked Max’s bum as he walked past. Max chuckled and watched Harry walk away with a smile until Harry was out of sight and he went back to the dishes, smiling at the colourful plastic bowls that the kids had decorated themselves with glitter glue and stickers, made permanent and undamageable by a simple charm.

He washed each one carefully and placed them into the drainer, the matching spoons and beakers not far behind before washing the mugs used that morning before tipping out the dirty water and drying his hands on a tea towel.

 

“Daddy?” Came the small call from the living room and Max made his way there quickly, hunching down in front of Braiden again and smiling softly.

 

“What’s wrong honey?”

 

“That feeling’s back. The one I had before where I thought I needed a wee, but didn’t.”

 

Max took Braiden to the bathroom, frowning only for a moment at the pull up nappy before he cradled his oldest son as he sobbed in discomfort.

He wanted to cry right along with Braiden at how miserable and uncomfortable he was, but he held himself strong and sorted him out, got him into a new pull up, got him dressed into his pyjamas, made sure to wash his and Braiden’s hands thoroughly before tucking him back on the settee, making sure he took a few sips of the rehydration solution first.

EB was tucked back into Braiden’s little arms and Max kissed him lingeringly. He hated seeing his babies in pain or so sick and fevered they couldn’t do anything by lie down.

 

“How is he?” Draco asked softly from the door.

 

“Just had another bout of diarrhoea. He’s so miserable and unwell, we have to keep track of all of the vomiting and diarrhoea, too many in a twenty-four hour period and he’ll need a Healer.”

 

“That’s what I was thinking.” Draco said as he held out a notebook and a quill.

 

Max smiled and opened it to a fresh page, writing down everything he knew of Braiden’s sickness, from his changing temperatures, to the times he had vomited, how much of the rehydration solution he had drank and what he had eaten, which so far was nothing, he’d give him some plain toast when he next woke up and some soft eggs for lunch if he kept the toast down.

 

“Right, I have to get on with the washing, can you watch him Draco? I don’t think he likes being on his own.”

 

“Sure, I’ll take an hour to read if no one needs me for anything.”

 

“Blaise and Nasta have nearly all the kids in the garden and Harry has Xabe covered as Nasta’s forced him to go to bed to rest, it’s just Braiden.”

 

“Then I’ll keep an ear out for everyone else, but I’ll stay here with him.”

 

Max nodded and left hesitantly.

 

“I can look after him on my own you know.” Draco smirked.

 

“I know, I just…he’s so unwell and I don’t want to leave him.”

 

“He’ll be fine, go and do the washing; it’ll only catch up with you when he’s better and then you’ll be sorry that you didn’t keep on top of it.”

 

Max sighed. “Yeah I know.”

 

Max left and Draco pulled his newest novel down from the bookshelf. He had been wanting to read it for a week now, but hadn’t had the chance or the time, he was grateful for an hour to get started on it, it had been playing on his mind since it had come via owl on the day of its release and seeing it just sitting on the bookshelf, just waiting for him to open it and settle down, it drove him insane.

He sat in the armchair by Braiden’s head and cracked the book open and he was lost from the first word. An hour and a half passed so quickly, almost in the blink of an eye for Draco, but the moment Braiden let out a soft moan, he was sliding a bookmark into the pages and putting it down.

 

“Mummy?” Braiden croaked out so weakly.

 

“I’m here Braiden.” Draco said, slipping over to sit on the edge of the settee, facing Braiden, whose cheeks were still bright, cherry red.

 

“Daddy, my head and belly hurts.”

 

Draco frowned and pressed a large hand to that tiny forehead, Braiden actually pushed his searing hot forehead into his cool, dry palm.

 

“Do you need to be sick?”

 

Braiden shook his head.

 

“Do you need the toilet?”

 

Again Braiden shook his head.

 

“Do you need a drink? Something to eat?”

 

Braiden considered it then nodded. Draco pulled him up onto his lap carefully and slowly, holding him gently as he gave him a few sips of the rehydration solution. Braiden took a few more sips and then a few more before he pushed the beaker away.

 

“Let’s go and get you some toast, okay baby boy?”

 

“Not a baby.” Braiden said so quietly Draco almost didn’t hear him.

 

Frowning Draco took out his wand and touched it to Braiden’s forehead. The reading had gone up to one hundred and two point seven. He sighed and sat Braiden on his hip, letting him lean against his shoulder, burying his head into his neck weakly.

Draco put some toast on for him and rubbed his back gently. Max came into the kitchen with an arm load of white clothing. He dumped them into the washing machine, set it up, but aware of how Braiden might be feeling, didn’t set it off.

 

“How are you feeling now little man?”

 

Braiden just made a soft noise.

 

“He’s had half the remainder of the Dioralyte.” Draco answered. “But his temperature has gone up to one hundred and two point seven. He needs a fever reducer.”

 

Max marked the changes down in his book nodding. “As soon as he hits one hundred and three, I’ll call a Healer.” He said. “Has he had any more bouts of vomiting?”

 

“No, he’s been asleep pretty much since you left; he’s only just woken up, though his head hurts now as well.”

 

“He might have a headache from the high fever, I’ve already dug out some fever reducers and a junior headache reliever, if he can eat just half a piece of toast, he can have both.”

 

Draco nodded and cut the piece of toast into four little squares and coaxed Braiden to eat at least two of them.

The poorly little boy actually managed two and a bit before he pushed it away and refused any more.

 

“Come here love; let’s get some medicine into you.” Max said, taking Braiden into his own arms and holding out a tiny amount of potion in a tumbler glass. “You need to take all of this and down in one Braiden, can you do that for me sweetheart?”

 

Braiden nodded tiredly and when the glass came to his lips, he gulped the potion down and pulled a face, his eyes tearing up at the horrible taste.

 

“I know they don’t taste very nice, no medicine ever tastes nice, but you still need them to feel better. Now love, this one will help with your bad head okay, so same again, drink all of it and down in one.”

 

There was more of this potion than the last and Braiden struggled to swallow it all, but he managed it, fat tears sliding down his red cheeks.

 

“There we go, all gone. You’re such a good, brave boy; I think you deserve a sticker.”

 

Braiden actually smiled, no matter how weakly or tired it was as Max carried him over to the far end of the kitchen and to the ten star charts charmed to the wall. The charts were set out with the days of the week and at the end of the week, each star was counted and the children got Knuts and Sickles in their jars for however many stars they had gotten.

Each star was worth a Knut, but if a child got five stars in a single day, they got a Sickle instead. Only Braiden had ever gotten a Galleon before and it was for getting thirty-six stars in a single week. It had only happened once so far.

Max let Braiden pick which colour star he wanted and wasn’t surprised that he picked green, like the jungle trees. He peeled the green star from the paper and stuck it between the two lines for Saturday. Braiden was the first child to get a star for today and he pointed that out, making Braiden smile. It didn’t matter that all the kids would probably get a star when they came in from helping Nasta in the garden; he was the first for today.

He took the pencil from the board and wrote under the star what it was rewarded for, so the children could see what they had done right, and the other mates could as well, before carrying Braiden back into the living room and laying him on the settee.

 

“Do you need the bathroom?” He asked.

 

Braiden shook his head.

 

“A drink?”

 

Braiden shook his head.

 

“Do you need anything?”

 

Another head shake and Max tucked the blanket over him and kissed his cheek.

 

“I don’t think I can sleep Daddy.” Braiden whispered.

 

“How about a story?”

 

Braiden nodded slowly and Max went to the bookshelf and pulled down the new book he’d bought for Braiden about two parrots who went on an adventure into the jungle. He knew Braiden would love it, but he hadn’t had a chance to read it or to even show it to the boy before now, he had planned on doing it at bedtime, but with Braiden being so sick, he thought this was just the thing he needed to cheer him up just a little bit.

 

“This book is called Peter and Polly Parrot in the Jungle.” Max said, watching as Braiden’s eyes widened and he tried to sit up.

 

Max sat on the settee and pulled Braiden and EB on to his lap, reclining him slightly so he used less energy, but sat him up enough so he could still see the pictures on the book. He draped the blanket over Braiden, and himself by extension, and made sure he was tucked in.

 

“It’s new.” Braiden said as he touched the words and pictures on the front cover.

 

Max nodded. “I bought this for you the other day, I was going to show it to you tonight, for your bedtime story, but as you’re so unwell, it can’t hurt to give it to you early.”

 

“Thank you Daddy.”

 

Max gave Braiden a kiss when he angled his head back for one, hoping he didn’t catch the bug the boy had, but not caring enough about it not to kiss his son before he cracked the book open and started reading, Braiden showing more enthusiasm than he had all day.

 

“Peter and Polly parrot were brother and sister. Like most brothers and sisters they loved adventures. One day they flew further than they ever had before and they ended up in a _giant_ forest!

 

‘Let’s go and explore!’ Peter parrot said to his sister.

 

‘It looks really dark Peter.’ Polly told her brother.

 

‘It’ll be fun Polly!’ Peter insisted. ‘Come on, let’s go and see if we can find a tree frog to play with!’

 

The two went into the forest, not knowing that they had actually gone into a huge jungle and that there were a lot more dangerous things in there than a tree frog. Things like monkeys and elephants, tigers and lions!”

 

“People are wrong about lions.” Braiden insisted stubbornly. “They don’t eat animals at all, they eat the jungle leaves!”

 

Max smiled indulgently and chuckled before carrying on the story of Peter and Polly, not telling Braiden that his most favourite animal in the world would eat any meat that wandered across its path.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

For four days Braiden battled with his fever and stomach bug and all of them were tired and grouchy.

 

“This reminds me of when we were back in Hogwarts, that last month before the exams where absolutely everything went wrong and we were almost at breaking point.” Max said through a yawn.

 

“It doesn’t help that Xabe isn’t sleeping through the night yet.” Draco groaned.

 

“Give it time. Braiden will be fine soon, this can’t last much longer, it’s been four days.”

 

The five of them were up and awake, despite it being only six in the morning. It was a school day and in half an hour they had to wake up the kids, dress them for nursery, feed them and get them off as quickly and as easily as possible.

Little steps on the stairs alerted them to one of the kids being awake earlier than they should have been. Harry stood to go and get the little one, but Braiden came into the kitchen before he could, his rhino pyjamas on today, EB under one arm being squashed by a large stuffed lion, also under the same arm.

 

“How are you feeling sweetheart?” Harry asked.

 

“Better Mummy.”

 

Harry actually let out a relieved smile. He pulled Braiden into his arms and sat him on his lap as Blaise tapped his forehead with his wand.

 

“Ninety-eight point seven. Perfectly normal.” Blaise reported with a smile. He bent and kissed Braiden’s little mouth and ruffled his hair.

 

“Can I go to school today?” He asked brightly.

 

“I think we should keep you home for one more day.” Nasta replied, looking very apologetic as Braiden deflated.

 

“We’re not that bad to stay with are we?” Draco teased, shaking his arm gently.

 

“No!” Braiden said quickly. “But I miss my friends and school; I’ll be so behind in my exercise book!”

 

“Are you sure Granger hasn’t gotten to him?” Draco asked.

 

Harry chuckled. “I think it’s wonderful that we have a child so eager to learn and you only have to look at Blaise to know where he gets it from, remember the last month of school? It was like he was possessed.”

 

“I wasn’t that bad.” Blaise frowned.

 

“You were.” Max replied with a wide grin.

 

“Why are you up so early love?” Harry asked Braiden.

 

“I needed a wee. I was going back to bed but I heard you down here.”

 

“Do you want to go back to bed?”

 

Braiden shook his head.

 

Max stood up with a groan and started pottering around making breakfast. Braiden slipped over onto his own chair and sat happily, listening to Draco and Nasta talking softly, Blaise adding in his thoughts here or there.

Harry laughed silently as his son sat at the table, making his back straight like Daddy Draco had taught him, listening to the conversation and acting like a big boy.

How Harry loved his oldest son, not to say he didn’t love his other children, he did very much, but Braiden was his oldest, his most ‘grown-up’, the child who wanted to be seen as older than he was and was so well behaved Harry considered him the perfect child, despite his spectacular, though admittedly rare, tantrums.

Max served Braiden a single boiled egg with two pieces of toast cut into slices. Braiden grinned and thanked Max happily as he dipped his toast into his egg. Max gave the rest of them the same breakfast, only with two eggs and four slices of toast and sat down to enjoy his own breakfast before the others got up.

 

“How are the fledglings Nas?” Harry asked after a lull in the conversation.

 

“Brilliant.” Nasta answered with a grin. “We’ve had the record number of surviving fledglings this year; we’re going to be hands on now for the rest of the year to rear them to adulthood, though four of them have been promised to other reserves to help the breeding programme.”

 

Harry smiled at how excited Nasta was when talking of the dragons.

 

“I’m sure you said before, but what breeds are they again?” Harry asked, even though he knew perfectly well, Nasta knew he knew as well if the part smile, part smirk he sent him was any indication, but neither of them minded.

 

“We have eight Ironbellies, twelve Welsh greens and nine short-snouts. They’re all in different stages though, with the Ironbellies almost juveniles, but now the Welsh greens have turned fledgling, they’re all in the fledgling stage at the moment, so we have a few weeks of reprieve, before the Ironbellies turn juvenile and start acting up.”   

 

“Good luck with that.” Max clapped his shoulder and grinned.

 

“Good luck with your meningitis outbreak.” Nasta grinned back.

 

Max groaned theatrically, making Braiden giggle around his egg and toast. Harry got up and got him his beaker and asked Braiden what he wanted to drink.

 

“Orange juice, please Mummy.”

 

Harry couldn’t help but smile as he poured the pure juice into the beaker and handed it to Braiden.

 

“Where’s my juice Mummy?” Max pouted.

 

Braiden giggled. “Mummy isn’t _your_ Mummy, Daddy Max! You’re so silly!”

 

The five of them chuckled at that, even as Harry poured a glass of orange juice for all of them and kissed them gently. Harry had never been so proud, or so entertained, as when his children had started talking in sentences, even if those sentences were choppy, unfinished or only a few words long.

Regan was the worst for talking, as Leolin didn’t count due to his Faerie heritage, and that was mostly because Tegan spoke for him. The five of them tried to stop her and tried to coax Regan into talking more, but he was simply contented to let Tegan talk for him or decide what they were doing, she really was a force to be reckoned with.

A soft cry from over the baby monitor had Harry scoffing another bite of eggy toast and dashing up the stairs to fetch Xabe as Draco stood to boil the kettle and set up a bottle ready.

 

“Are you still feeling well after breakfast?” Blaise asked Braiden, smoothing the silky black hair from his little face.

 

Braiden nodded. “Yes Daddy. I feel so much better.”

 

“We did promise that you’d be better soon, didn’t we?” Max said with a smile.

 

Braiden nodded again. “Thank you for making me all better.”

 

“That’s alright sweetheart. We wouldn’t have left you sick and miserable.” Nasta told him as he came around the table to help Braiden scoop out his egg with a spoon, it was harder to do with the thick, plastic spoons.

 

Braiden happily allowed Nasta to scoop out his egg and feed him, it was rare as he often insisted he could do it himself and Nasta savoured the act of feeding his oldest child.

Harry came in with Xabe tucked into the crook of his arm and little Lai jutted on his hip.

 

“There’s my beautiful baby!” Max cried out, taking Lai from Harry and peppering kisses all over the sweet little sleep creased face.

 

“Our little terror was wandering around the upstairs landing, trying to climb over the safety gate at the top.” Harry frowned.

 

“I’ll put some wards over it.” Draco insisted. “It’s been a while since any of them have been old enough to try climbing over it, but young enough to not know how to open it.”

 

“It’s only Lai and terrible two.”

 

“What is with these nicknames for our children?” Harry demanded.

 

“What? It gives them all a separate identity.” Max said innocently. “And Taren is in the terrible two’s. Then again Lai will be in the terrible twos soon too.”

 

“You can’t call both of them terrible two.” Blaise pointed out.

 

“You shouldn’t be calling any of them terrible two!” Harry frowned as he tested the bottle Draco had prepared on his exposed forearm before rubbing the teat on Xabe’s cheek, watching the newborn baby root for the nipple, catching it between little lips and suckling.

 

“Xabie’s so cute.” Braiden said in all the seriousness of a protective big brother.

 

“Me too!” Lai burst out.

 

“You too Lay-Lay.” Braiden nodded, patting the sixteen month old gently on the head, fluffy hair stuck up from sleep still. 

 

The five adults chuckled and sniggered as they watched the siblings before Draco put the younger of the two into a highchair as Max served another egg and two sliced pieces of toast.

Max handed Braiden a bowl of sliced banana and the boy made an excited sound, having not been able to eat much over the past four days.

Slowly the day started to get rowdier and more active as Nasta went to get the kids up and dressed for nursery, bringing them down to where Max had breakfast ready and waiting.

Harry put Xabe into a bassinet, out of the way of the table and the other children, but close at hand as he fed his children, cleaned up after them and tried to keep everything in some semblance of order, but gone were the peaceful, quiet days where he could actually hear himself think, but as he looked around his little brood of children, he decided he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

“Tar, don’t do that…no! Taren!” Harry sighed exasperatedly as his two year old child up ended the beaker of apple juice onto Blaise’s lap.

 

Blaise jumped up and started cursing in Italian if Nasta unimpressed scowl was anything to go by and the kids of course laughed as their Daddy Blaise started ‘dancing’ around the kitchen before rushing to change his trousers before he had to go to work.

Harry picked Taren up from the highchair and washed the diddy little fingers from the butter and egg that had migrated under tiny fingernails. He washed the little mouth and chin to much protest of his mucky little child before setting Taren free to terrorise the others before the older children left for nursery.

 

“Are you sure you can manage five of them on your own? You should be resting.” Draco said worriedly.

 

“It’s only Braiden, Leolin, Taren, Lai and Xabe, I’ll be fine and if I need a break, there’s always Finding Nemo.”

 

“No Finding Nemo!” Braiden burst out. “George of the Jungle.”

 

Harry smiled indulgently and kissed Braiden’s upturned face.

 

“You can watch it after dinner honey, okay? Now all of you be good in nursery!”

 

“I’m in school.” Braiden said proudly.

 

“I know you are, but you’re always good.” Harry told him secretively. “I don’t need to remind you, do I?”

 

Braiden shook his head and grinned like he held the biggest secret ever as he rounded up his siblings and got them to stand still for a moment as Harry washed their hands and faces free of their breakfasts.

 

“Go and sit down Braiden love, you should be resting, not running around.” Nasta told him. “Take Leolin and Taren into the living room for me.”

 

Braiden pouted but hugged his siblings going off to nursery goodbye, took Leolin and Taren’s hands and tugged the four year old and the little two year old into the living room.

Harry rounded them up as Draco dragged and tugged a brush through their hairs, much to their displeasure and screaming. Harry dug Lai out of the horde as Nasta scooped up the twins, Max got Farren and Regan into his arms and Blaise found himself with a chattering Calix and an upset Tegan who had been forcibly separated from Regan and was not best pleased with the development either if her quickly reddening cheeks were anything to go by.

Harry kissed his children and his mates’ goodbye and it took only minutes for them to be gone. Draco finished his tea, washed up the breakfast things and took a cloth to the table, before freshening himself up, kissing Harry goodbye, and left for the day.

Harry sighed as the house was infinitely quieter without all the children running around and screaming.

 

“Just me and you and four others, huh Lai love?”

 

The sixteen month old giggled and Harry smiled, scooping up Xabe and going into the living room and settling down to play with the five children he was left at home with, the three too young for nursery, the one recovering from an illness and couldn’t go to school and the one that needed specialist care and attention that wasn’t offered in any normal or even private nursery.

No, his life was incredibly hectic and his days were always full, but he would never change this for the world. Nothing on this Earth was more important to him, was more precious than the life he had with his mates, with the children they had created and raised together and as Leolin crawled onto his lap, his small scrap of fabric that constituted as a blanket to the little Faerie pressed to his nose, Harry knew that nothing would ever be as important to him as his growing family. Nothing.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: One of the rare long Scaled Bits chapters, but I don’t think you’ll complain, especially as it was only supposed to be a short, fluffy one-shot, but that soon changed as my love and need to put in every detail possible and the actual plot itself took over.  
> As I said up top, Xabe, A and E, and Lai are abbreviated names or nicknames, not the full names, as if Harry would call a baby of his Accident or Emergency, but if you can get genders from them, then I’ll demand my notebooks back from you. Taren however, as a unisex name, was given to you in full.  
> But anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this look into the future! I enjoyed writing it, no matter how long it took and how much research actually went into it. So let me know what you think of it and I might do some more of them later on if I can get around to it. Maybe the first ever family holiday?
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	30. Observation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Several scenes created to show several different scenes in the family’s lives all depicting Harry as the amazing, if sometimes awkward, Mother that he is through the eyes of his mates. Requested by Lucia and granted, I hope you enjoy it lovelie.

Observation 

 

Watching Harry was a favourite past time. Max didn’t know why, he didn’t know if it was a by-product of his Dracken genes, if it was something he would have still done even if he had been human or even if it was just Harry always drawing his attention to whatever he was doing, but he always found himself watching Harry whenever he had a spare few minutes, or even a spare half hour, anything longer than that was usually a luxury that they spent together what with having nine children to look after any spare time to themselves was relished.

But as Max looked up at the person of his thoughts, he found Harry doing his most favourite thing to watch him do. Being the most amazing, perfect Mother in the world. At least in his opinion.

Harry was sitting on the floor, numerous toys scattered around him and three little toddlers all vying for Mummy’s sole attention.

Calix, Regan and Tegan were all twenty-five months old, along with their two other brothers, Farren and Leolin, though as a Faerie baby, Leolin didn’t really count as he was more like a eleven month old than the twenty-five month old he should have been. Braiden had celebrated his twenty-ninth month and their identical twins were thirteen months old and Max had affectionately nicknamed them Accident and Emergency after Harry had proudly declared their names began with an A and an E. It was too funny to pass up. Harry didn’t think so. The latest addition to their family was newborn Taren, who was two weeks old but Max could happily keep that one from his mind, Draco was on baby monitoring duty today.

Max instead happily watched a small part of his family from the opposite end of the room, he should have been doing his paperwork, but it lay all but forgotten as he watched the grin light up Harry’s face as Tegan bent over to pick up a wooden block before thrusting it at Harry, her face split open with her own gorgeous grin.

Harry took the block from her with a soft ‘Thank you Tegan love’ before his attention was taken by Calix falling over his thigh and into his lap.

Harry threw his head back and laughed happily, the sound brought an answering smile to Max’s face as he watched Harry pick Calix up and set him back on his feet, kissing a flushed red cheek first.

 

“Mummy!” Tegan interrupted sharply, demandingly as she tugged on Harry’s hair.

 

Harry quickly and effectively released his hair from Tegan’s tight grip, turning his attention to their oldest daughter.

 

“What’s the matter Tegan?” He asked softly.

 

“Two block.” Tegan said as she held out two wooden blocks, Max grinned in pride, which was echoed by Harry.

 

“Yes sweetheart, two blocks. Why don’t you help Regan with his tower?”

 

Max marvelled at how easily Harry dealt with the children as Tegan immediately turned to look for her ‘twin’ brother and went over to help him, leaving Harry to have a bit of time with Calix.

Max watched with a soft, probably dopey, smile as Harry nuzzled and tickled Calix, making his second blood son shriek with laughter and giggles. Calix was such an easy going little boy, so much like himself, that he couldn’t stop himself from making him laugh at any opportunity.

He watched as Harry held Calix around the stomach, helping him play and pick things up, talking to him, helping him learn his numbers and colours and shapes by getting him to repeat them after him. He felt a twitch in his jeans and he groaned. Why did the thought of Harry being such a brilliant Mother always turn him on? He didn’t think it was a sexual fetish, but it was definitely something that made him react when he saw Harry going all maternal on the children.

 

“Are you alright Maxie?” Harry called from across the room, looking at him, his face all crumpled softly in concern, his gorgeous eyes alight with love for everyone in the family, but also slight worry for him, and him alone.

 

He groaned again, louder and Harry put Calix aside gently and came to him, laying a soft, smooth hand on his forehead with a frown.

 

“You don’t have a temperature.”

 

“I’m fine.” Max insisted, before he pulled Harry onto his lap so he could feel exactly what was wrong with him without him having to say it out loud and have selective little ears listening in and repeating it to Daddy Nasta at an inconvenient time.

 

“Oh!” Harry breathed out softly, before he chuckled deeply. “You’re being a naughty boy Maximilius; shall I put you on the naughty step to cool down?”

 

Max groaned gutturally at that. Maybe he had a strange Harry as a Mother fetish, either way he clamped his arms around Harry and kissed him passionately, to the three delighted screeches of the toddlers watching them curiously.

They broke apart and looked at the three toddlers, who were practically dancing in happiness at watching their Mummy and Daddy Max kissing. It made Harry laugh as he slipped from his lap and went to the three on the floor, stopping halfway to look over his shoulder.

 

“I suppose I’ll take care of you later tonight, when the little ones are in bed. Only if you’re a good boy and finish your paperwork though.”

 

Max dropped his head to the table at that and huffed in frustration as his interested cock throbbed in his jeans. He seriously had a Harry fetish.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Blaise hated punishing any of the children. He hated the look in their eyes as he told them off or told them they couldn’t have this or couldn’t do that. The betrayed, absolutely crushed look on their little sweet faces and with thirteen of them, rules, routines, boundaries and punishments were something that was a must.

At five, Braiden was their oldest and he was such an amazing child. Blaise marvelled at him every single day. His maturity, his love for all of them, his patience and kindness for his younger siblings, his budding intelligence and his love for all animals and adventure.

Blaise wouldn’t like to say that he favoured Braiden any more than the other children, but their oldest was the least likely to throw a tantrum, thus least likely to need a punishment dished out and Blaise hated punishing the children so much, he hated seeing their soft faces crumped in upset, their eyes red from crying and screaming themselves sick.

That was why when he turned and saw Braiden go to hit Calix, he hesitated, for just a moment, which resulted it Braiden’s hand connecting with Calix’s head and Calix blinking in shock, before letting himself fall onto the floor and he started crying hysterically. Blaise panicked, Braiden never hit his brothers or sisters, he never wanted to hurt them, why had he turned and hit Calix?

Harry was there then, his saviour, as he hunched down in front of Calix and Braiden and asked sternly what had happened, holding Braiden’s upper arm and Calix’s, stopping the crying boy from trying to hug him until he got the full story from the both of them.

Blaise stood back, watching Harry deal with the situation and meticulously get the full story from the upset boys. Apparently Calix had snatched one of Braiden’s favourite toys, a stuffed lion he had named Leonie and Braiden had heard a ripping sound and thought his favourite toy had broken, so in a rare fit of rage, he had lashed out and hit his brother.

 

“You know it’s not right to hit others Braiden.” Harry said sternly, giving his son the eye contact that Blaise never could when attempting to punish the kids. “You apologise to Calix and tell him that you love him, then you’ll go and sit on the naughty step for five minutes.”

 

Braiden was crying openly, his face the picture of abject misery and Blaise would have caved in immediately and hugged him, kissed him and told him that everything was alright. But not Harry, who oversaw Braiden saying that he was sorry to Calix and that he loved him.

 

“Now Calix, you know it’s not right to snatch things that aren’t yours without asking permission, what do you say to Braiden?” Harry said to the younger of the two boys.

 

“I’m sorry Bay.” Calix told the floor between sniffles.

 

Of course that almost broke Blaise’s heart, but it wasn’t nearly good enough for Harry.

 

“Tell Braiden what you’re sorry for Calix.” He refused to relent.

 

“I’m sorry for taking Leenie without asking Bay.” Calix huffed, tears still falling.

 

“Right, now hug and make up.”

 

The two brothers embraced and held one another tightly.

 

“Now, Braiden, you have five minutes on the naughty step for hitting your brother, it’s not right to hit others no matter what reason you think you have or even if they hit you first, you come and find me or one of your Daddies. Calix, you get four minutes in the corner for snatching things that aren’t yours from your brother. Go, both of you, I’ll come and get you when your punishment is over.”

 

Braiden shuffled to the bottom step of the main staircase and Calix went to the free corner in the kitchen, standing facing the corner with his head against the wall, still crying, his tiny delicate frame shaking, his shoulders quivering as he sobbed into the wall.

Harry stood up with a sigh and went to make a cup of tea as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, as if two of their children hadn’t just been punished and were both crying in upset, one on the stairs, the other in the corner of the room they were still in.

Blaise itched to go and get them both and smother them in hugs and kisses to get them to stop crying, to get them to stop with the crushed faces and to make them feel better in any way he could.

 

“Leave them.” Harry said sternly as he fixed his tea how he liked it and turned, resting his cocked hip against the counter and taking a sip of his tea, not even looking at a sniffling Calix, who was shuffling his little feet and crying into the wall.

 

“How can you just leave them like that?” Blaise asked softly, more than upset at what he had seen and at the thought of leaving his sons to cry in misery.

 

“They need to learn Blaise. They need to know that this behaviour isn’t allowed and that they cannot act like this. I want my children to be polite, well behaved members of society when they’re adults Blaise, so any bad behaviour has to be corrected immediately, so that they learn not to do it in the future. It’s the only way and I would like your support. I know you don’t like punishing them, none of us do, but you need to learn and quickly. If I hadn’t been here you would have let Braiden get away with hitting Calix and Calix get away with snatching things without permission. That’s unacceptable Blaise! All of us have explained this to you, you need to get over whatever issue you have with punishing them, or I won’t be able to leave you on your own with any of them.”

 

Harry stood there all relaxed as he drank his tea, watching the kitchen clock, timing the punishments. Draco walked in carrying Xabe on his hip, the ten month old gumming happily on a pink and purple octopus that was singing chirpy ocean songs about fish.

Calix went to turn around at the noise, but a stern ‘ah’ from Harry had his head flying back to the wall, shuffling his feet restlessly as he itched to go and play.

 

“What did they do?” Draco asked as he readjusted Xabe on his hip, automatically catching the toy as it dropped from awkward little hands and pressed it back into Xabie’s wet mouth and clenching fingers. “I passed Braiden on the stairs, he’s thinking very hard.”

 

“Good.” Harry nodded. “Calix snatched Leonie from Braiden, so he lost his temper and hit him as he though he heard Leonie ripping.”

 

“Braiden actually hit Calix?” Draco asked shocked.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m as surprised as you, but he loves Leonie, it’s one of his favourite toys. Granddad Aneirin brought it back just for him all the way from Africa, he loves it.”

 

“Someone should tell him that Leonie is a boy lion.”

 

Harry snorted. “Let him name his toys what he wants to love, when he’s older and has his own children and he tries to name a daughter Paul or a son Cheryl, then we can intervene, if his mate doesn’t get there first of course.”

 

“How can you be so calm when Calix is right there?” Blaise asked, very upset.

 

“You still can’t deal with punishment? Blaise it has to be done.” Draco said agitatedly as he shifted a wriggly Xabe again.

 

“It seems so dispassionate, so cruel.”

 

“I will not have spoilt brats for children.” Harry insisted. “I mean it Blaise, if you can’t learn to suck it up and grow a backbone; I will not leave you alone with them. I will not have you undoing all of our hard work in this by going soft. You grow a pair and deal with their behaviour accordingly, or you’ll always have one of us with you to deal with any bad behaviour that might crop up.”

 

With that Harry put his mug down and went to the corner, speaking softly to Calix, who warbled back, his tears coming back in force before Harry hugged him and kissed him gently on his puckered mouth, before brushing his tears away and sending him off to Max and Nasta and the other children in the living room before he went to get Braiden.

He came back into the kitchen only a few minutes later, Braiden snuggled into him, his little body shaking with tears.

 

“They still love me Blaise, even if they are upset at the moment, it’ll all be forgotten in an hour and they’ll go back to normal, everything forgiven and forgotten. They won’t hate any of us for doing this. It needs to be done and the next time, you will deal with it, I won’t have you ignoring bad behaviour because you’re uncomfortable in dealing with punishment.”

 

Blaise was not happy, but he nodded anyway, accepting Xabe of off Draco when the tiny ten month old reached out for him, annoying singing octopus still in hand. Not a moment later the shrill cry of a one month old came from the living room and Harry was off again to deal with whatever problem had cropped up this time. Christmas couldn’t come soon enough, nor the quintuplets fifth birthday, that was going to be a disaster just waiting to happen, he just knew it.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Nasta was lounging. There was no other way to describe his casual, relaxed demeanour as he sighed lightly and reclined back on the settee further.

He had finished the latest batch of paperwork early, which meant unlimited time to do as he pleased while the younger three mates were in lessons and Max was taking a nap with the kids.

It being a Thursday, Harry would be back an hour before the other two, who had Potions where Harry had a free period.

Everything was quiet and Nasta savoured it for the few minutes before Harry would be back, Max would be awake and the kids would all want feeding. It was peaceful and it re-centred him, letting him have just enough of the peace he wanted, without it becoming too much.

A baby crying shattered that peace and with a soft groan, Nasta peeled himself from the settee and went to go and retrieve the baby, only to find that Max had beaten him to it, which meant he had already been awake and on his way into the living room before little Farren had started crying.

Max carried him into the kitchen to set up a bottle while Nasta checked on the others before joining him.

 

“Did you sleep well?” He asked.

 

Max nodded. “I needed that.” He replied as he shook the bottle to mix it and cooled it with his wand.

 

“You looked like you did, but then you were up several times in the night.”

 

“Four times, don’t say several, it makes me feel tired again.” Max said with a grin as he pulled him into a passionate kiss before the crying got louder and more distressed. “Alright Farren, food is on its way, stop it.”

 

“Don’t tell him off for crying for food!” Harry said from the doorway, slinging his bag away and toeing off his shoes before he took Farren carefully from Max, snatched the bottle and stormed away.

 

“I love it when he goes all maternal and protective.” Max groaned, looking happy.

 

Nasta snorted. “We all know that. I love it too.”

 

Nasta went into the living room to see Harry cradling Farren lovingly as he suckled as quickly as the flow of the bottle would let him. The look on Harry’s face, the absolute love and care that showed naked on his face, one look at him and Nasta knew that Harry would die for each and every child, horribly and painfully if he had to, but if he could save them from anything, pain, hurt, upset, sickness, Harry would willing exchange himself in their place without even a thought.

It made his heart hurt, made his Dracken rage inside of him, but it was how it should be. A Mother’s sacrifice. He loved and hated knowing that Harry would give up his own life to keep their children safe, he loved it because he didn’t want any harm to ever come to his children, but he hated the thought of Harry dying, but he knew, if Harry had to make that ultimate sacrifice for the children, he would already be dead and unable to help, because that is the only way anyone hostile would ever get close to Harry and the babies. If he, and the others if necessary, would already be dead.

 

“You’re thinking too hard.” Harry told him as he sat on the settee and patted Farren’s back firmly to bring up his wind. “Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine.” Nasta answered quietly and distractedly.

 

“Still thinking too hard.” Harry huffed before his attention was taken by the baby boy in his arms, who grabbed his own toes with a wet gurgle and rocked even as Harry’s arm held him around the waist.

 

Harry laughed at Farren and cuddled him tighter, kissing his cheeks and bouncing his knee. Nasta watched him indulgently, he had nothing else to do but watch Harry with their second oldest child as Max fed Leolin in the background.

 

“You’re staring, it’s creepy.”

 

“It’s not creepy to watch my lover and my child!” Nasta insisted.

 

Harry grinned to show he was teasing and Nasta’s hackles lowered and he smiled back, shaking his head.

Harry went back to Farren, babbling noises to him just to hear him gurgle and giggle. It warmed Nasta’s heart to see Harry like this. Not hurting, not sad or upset, not thinking about his terrible childhood or the horrors of anything, just him and the children. He really did love it.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco was distracted. He readily admitted it as he pushed away his work, telling himself he’d take just a small ten minute break as he watched the object of his distraction.

He couldn’t stop the smile as Leolin squealed in joy as Harry dipped him backwards, they were playing a game that Harry had invented to get Leolin interacting with him and to try and stimulate speech.

 

“Fishy in the water, fishy in the sea, who do you like best, fishy or me?” Harry sung as he bounced Leolin on his lap, the little five year old giggling madly.

 

“Fishy.” Leolin lisped sweetly, looking at Harry through his lashes with an evil little grin.

 

Harry gasped in exaggerated shock before surging forward and dipping Leolin upside down in his lap so his overlong black hair was on end as Harry tickled him mercilessly and wiggled him gently as he kicked and thrashed and laughed infectiously.

 

“No! Mummy! Mummy! No fishy!” Leolin shouted and Harry laughed as he hefted Leolin back up and into a hug, attacking him with kisses instead.

 

Leolin laughed as he clung to Harry, resting his still tiny hands on Harry’s cheeks as they both laughed together. Draco adored it and he happily watched them as they played and bonded. Leolin only knew a few words, but his vocabulary was growing steadily as Harry thought up new games to teach him new words in a way that Leolin was receptive to. The Faerie courts were in uproar that a dragon could raise a better Faerie baby than they themselves could, Aneirin was incredibly smug about it too, of course.

Harry cuddled Leolin close and Draco watched the look on his face. The absolute love and devotion to his child and it choked something inside him. Harry loved every single child they had as the individuals they were. He loved every single one of them for exactly who they were and nothing would detract from that, it was a single minded obsession and Draco adored it about him.

As Harry held and cuddled with Leolin, the little boy yawned and his eyes drooped and Draco automatically checked the time. It was well past time for Leolin's afternoon nap, he was surprised the tiny five year old had made it this far as exuberant as he had been without slowing down or complaining that he was sleepy.

As Harry slowed them down and rocked Leolin gently, humming lightly which brought a smile to his face as he watched them, even as Leolin went quiet and still as he dropped off to sleep in Harry’s arms.

They had thirteen children and probably another one, or five, on the way, though he did hope it wasn’t a number over three, he couldn’t deal with another set of quintuplets, or even quadruplets for that matter, but one thing was for sure, he couldn’t wait to have another biological child, he loved having a little baby around that looked just like a mix of him and Harry, with a small bit of his Mother’s softness too. His baby was perfect, not that he loved his biological child any more than any of the others or thought them any less perfect, he didn’t, not by a long shot, he loved having a moment with Regan just as much as his biological little baby, as much as he loved getting a cuddle or a scraped knee to deal with from any of his children, non-biological they might be, but they were no less his children than Harry’s, no less important and he loved every single one of them and nothing warmed his heart more than a soft ‘I love you Daddy Draco’ from any of them, no matter the reason, but he couldn’t deny that he loved knowing that out of the thirteen children they had, one of them was of his blood and seed. It was a joyous feeling to know that he was carrying on the Malfoy genes and would carry on doing so until he and Harry were both a hundred and fifty, give or take a few years.

He looked back to Harry now, with his most vulnerable, delicate son, who was fast asleep resting chest to chest with Harry, who was reclining back on the comfortable settee, napping himself. Draco smiled. He loved seeing Harry sleeping with one of their children, it made something in his belly clench to make more babies for Harry to fall asleep with, he was sure it was a Dracken instinct, but he didn’t mind it in the slightest, he’d happily give Harry more children and he’d be more than happy to join in on any baby making, no matter if the next clutch weren’t of his blood and seed, they would still be his and he loved that thought more than anything else.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Nasta shook his head as he watched Harry rolling around the back garden with several babies copying him. He chuckled at their behaviour as he sipped on an iced, still lemonade from the decking on the back of the house.

Draco and Blaise were also on the decking with their own still lemonade, Max, unfortunately, had to go into work on short notice, some sort of epidemic in Ireland required his expertise in Potion medication and he had to go into work on such a beautiful day, when he should have been here with them, drinking iced lemonade, watching Harry wrestling with their children and probably, more than likely, joining in.

He set up the tree village monitor, the giant screen was on the end of the decking where he could see it, but it wasn’t right in front of him. The entire tree village had about a hundred or more cameras throughout it linked to wards and charms to keep the children safe and to give them a taste of independence, even if it was false independence as he was still supervising them on the screen, even if it was from a distance.

He smiled as he saw Braiden, Farren and Regan charging over a rickety bridge from one tree house to the next. They each had a stick in hand, which could have been wands or swords, he’d ask them later either over dinner as they talked about their day or as he tucked them in to bed.

The tree village was perhaps his greatest gift to his children. A giant, looping wooden structure, each tree house linked to the others which made up the village with a bridge or a slide or a ladder or a tunnel, all made out of wood or reinforced plastic, with rope and chain thrown in, metal fireman’s poles and netting also appeared throughout. The inside structures were all different too, some had adventure playgrounds with padded obstacles and ball pits, one was set up like a jungle for Braiden, another like a dinosaur adventure, others were play houses, with little kitchens, table and chairs and the biggest house, the one of only three that was in their actual back garden and not in the wood beside it, had a padded floor with sleeping spaces all around it, just in case the kids wanted to go camping in the garden.

It had taken him a year and a half to build, with magic and with occasional help from Max, for Braiden’s fourth birthday present and for the other children too, to promote outside play and a healthy, active childhood. He had charmed it heavily so none of the kids could see it while he was building it and then on Braiden’s fourth birthday, he had revealed it to absolute amazement of all his children, he still remembered Braiden’s face, he had it etched forever in his mind, but if he ever did forget, Harry had captured the moment in a series of photos that had pride of place in their photo albums and in a frame on their bedroom wall.

A loud scream had him breaking from his thoughts and memories and standing automatically, ready to defend his family, but he eased back down with a sigh as he saw Harry and his children were fine, but Harry was being bombarded by children and he was screaming in laughter as he was being climbed all over, Taren, the little trouble maker, had climbed right up onto Harry’s shoulders.

 

“A and E are really going for it, aren’t they?” Blaise chuckled as he watched the identical twins wrestling each other, hair in disarray, dungarees being pulled and tugged as they rolled together giggling.

 

Nasta snorted. “Harry won’t be happy to hear you calling them that again.” Was all he said as he watched Harry pull Taren down over his shoulder and tickled the little terror, his face alight with laughter as his nimble fingers dug into as much child flesh as he could reach, setting off Lai and Xabe too as Harry caught all three of them in a tickle war, his emerald eyes glinting in the sun.

Nasta licked his lips subtly. Harry truly was a beauty to behold with the sunlight haloing him in a bright glow, glinting off his eyes, teeth and smile as he let one of the twins tackle him and he started rolling again, the little twin held in his arms securely as he rolled over the soft, warm grass. The other children following with war cries and they caught up to and clambered all over poor Mummy.

Draco chuckled from beside him and Nasta spared him a smile before turning back to watch Harry wrestling, gently, with their children. A shrill cry over the baby monitor had him sighing and getting up to go and tend to their royal majesties inside. It seemed every new baby born turned into an even bigger diva and royal squalling babe than the previous and Nasta had thought no baby could be more demanding than Xabe. He had been wrong.      

He sent one last look at Harry, his own hair stuck up in odd tufts, slicked straight up with sweat as he laughed and wiggled Xabe in his arms, even as little, sweet Lai, grabbed a hold on Harry’s bicep and hung off of it. He laughed himself as he watched them and then turned back to go and get the screaming baby, which had probably woken the other one up by now as well.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Max sat on the settee and watched Harry shamelessly. Harry who was heavily pregnant with twin girls. They had so many children already, having more was insane, but as Drackens it couldn’t be helped.

Harry was rubbing his belly softly and speaking gently, barely above a whisper, to their two little girls and Max was taking his fill while he could as Harry could rush off to his nest at any moment now. He was sure Harry’s nest was already built, had probably been finished for a week or so now and it was now up to Harry’s Dracken side when he went into the nest to birth.

He and Nasta had woken up several times over the past few months to find Harry missing and sometimes they even heard him sneaking back into bed in the early hours. They knew by now to just ignore it, they needed Harry to feel secure in his new nest, he was too close to giving birth now to dismantle his previous nest and to scout out a new site and build a new nest. It would be a disaster waiting to happen.

So Max sat and he watched Harry, he was close enough to see Harry’s mouth moving, but too far away to hear exactly what he was saying. He heard the general murmur of Harry’s voice, he got odd words like love, big, sweeties, girls and baby, but they were odd words out of context, floating over to him when Harry spoke too loudly or there was a din in the background noise caused by Nasta and Blaise entertaining their many kids in the next room. Not an easy feat, especially as it sounded like world war three was going on and everyone was dying painfully.

A particularly loud screech disturbed Harry and had him looking over worriedly.

 

“I’m sure they’re fine.” Max assured him gently. “Nasta and Blaise know what they’re doing love, just relax. You’re not allowed to be stressed this close to your due date.”

 

Harry frowned for a moment, but he nodded when the noise quietened down and he went back to his pregnant stomach and Max went back to watching him with his pregnant stomach.

He loved it and after another ten minutes of just watching, he couldn’t help but intrude on Harry, before he had to leave to go and make dinner for the entire lot of them. He slipped down behind Harry and framed his rounded body with his legs, pulling him into his arms to cradle him against his body.

 

“I love you.” He said sincerely, nuzzling around the back of Harry’s head and neck, his hands playing with his pregnant belly, feeling a soft kick to his palm, which made him grin.

 

Harry huffed softly. “I know that. I love you too, but I was having a moment with my girls.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry, was this special, Mummy daughter time? Having a bit of a girls only chat were you? Should I go and get Tegan too? She’s old enough now; she can join in on everything lady like.”

 

Harry actually hit him and Max couldn’t help but laugh loudly.

 

“I’m sorry love, I couldn’t help but come over and tease you, I have to go into the cold kitchen all on my own and make dinner for you lovely lot. I wanted a cuddle first.”

 

“Is it dinner time already?” Harry asked in surprise.

 

Max nodded. “It will be in an hour or so. I’m surprised you aren’t hungry.”

 

Harry whacked him again.

 

“Ow! I don’t think you should be allowed to be pregnant with girls any more, you turn violent.”

 

Harry snorted.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous, that wasn’t violent. Me jamming your neck into a buzz saw is violent.”

 

“No I’m pretty sure that would be classed as psychotic, murderous and probably as overkill.” Max said thoughtfully.

 

Harry grinned before turning and snuggling into him.

 

“I wouldn’t kill you, not unless you got me pregnant with eight babies all by yourself. Actually, strike that, if you got me pregnant with any number of babies over four I’d kill you, and any other mate who fathered a baby on me too.”

 

Max smiled at Harry’s dramatic declaration and cuddled him in closer.

 

“Duly noted love, but wait until after they’re born okay? I don’t want to be killed if none of those babies turn out to be mine.”

 

Harry chuckled softly. “Done deal.”

 

Max groaned. “Well, I suppose I had better go and get on with dinner before the army descends upon my kitchen.”

 

“We don’t have an army.” Harry denied.

 

“Well, we have a small one.” Max pouted.

 

Harry sighed, but nodded. “With these two I suppose we’ll have enough for a small army.” Harry said as he jiggled his large belly holding the two little girls. “I just hope I can go for more than a few months without getting pregnant again, it’s going to be hell to try and get this weight off yet again.”

 

“You still look gorgeous!” Max called as he left the living room for the kitchen, leaving a softly smiling Harry behind, who shook his head and let out a laugh, before going back to his ‘girl’ time with his belly.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco couldn’t help but watch Harry with a smile on his mouth, even as he held baby Braiden on his lap. Harry was lying on his stomach, on the floor with Farren and Regan between his arms.

Harry was blowing raspberries on their bare bellies to their exuberant giggling and screeching and wiggling about.

He tensed as Farren’s foot caught Harry’s face, but Harry just pushed it back down and away from his face, rubbing his chin a bit before going back to the game. He inhaled deeply, but he could smell no blood, he’d need to be closer to sniff for any damage, perhaps even bring his tongue out to taste if there was any damage done under the skin, but he calmed himself, Harry seemed fine and he was laughing and playing again, any damage couldn’t be that bad and could wait. He was a Malfoy, he could control himself, even his Dracken self, if he had to. He was getting better at control. He was working incredibly hard on using his steel Malfoy control on his Dracken and it was working.

It didn’t always work of course, it was mostly trial and error too, but his progress kept him sat on the settee with Braiden gurgling and blowing spit bubbles even after seeing Harry get kicked in the face. Farren was very strong after all, he wasn’t worried about broken bones or chipped teeth, but Farren could be powerful when he chose to be and one wrong kick could have left a bruise or a cut, split a lip or even just hurt.

 

“I’m fine.” Harry said and Draco looked up to see emerald eyes pinned to him.

 

“I didn’t say anything.” Draco defended.

 

“You didn’t have to, but I am fine.”

 

“I stayed in my seat.”

 

“I’m thankful for that.” Harry grinned. “You are getting better, I have noticed, just keep it up and you can get a present.”

 

Draco perked up at that and Harry laughed, but they were both soon distracted, Draco by Braiden sticking his tongue out and blowing a raspberry of his own, which was simply adorable, not that he’d say so out loud, at least not while there were others in hearing distance at least, and Harry by Farran going to kick him again. Thankfully he managed to catch the little foot this time and he nibbled on it to raucous screaming and giggling.

Draco watched Harry as he bounced Braiden on his leg, Harry was an amazing Mother and he was proud to say that he had six children with him. Regan let out a happy gurgle as Harry turned his attention to him and Draco watched with a smile as Harry tickled, nibbled and made funny faces and silly noises to get the two boys to laugh in their infectious way.

He couldn’t imagine his life without Harry now, or his children. He did want his own blood children one day, but hopefully it wasn’t any time soon. He wouldn’t wish another pregnancy on Harry so soon, not after he was still recovering from quintuplets, and they all had more than enough to do with the six they already had and he was very content to wait however long it took to get a blood child to carry on the Malfoy name.

He couldn’t wait until the summer came and he could dump the six babies he already had on his Mother and Father for an entire afternoon, he was sure after that his Father would be less vocal about the need for a child of his own blood to carry on the Malfoy line. He was sure his Father would see that he had more than enough to do with six babies already without adding any more for a while thank you very much.

A shriek from Regan had Draco looking back to Harry and the two boys. Harry was laughing happily as he rolled and rocked the two of them and tickled them mercilessly; Draco smiled and hugged Braiden tightly. He loved Harry so much and he made such a brilliant, loving Mother, that even though they had so many children, he didn’t regret a single one of them. Seeing the love Harry held for them as he threw his head back in laughter and joy, it helped Draco feel better about the turns his life had taken. Before he had become a Dracken, he had never envisioned his life this way, but now, he couldn’t see it any other way.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Blaise swallowed as Harry glared at him from where he was sat changing a nappy on one of the foam mats.

 

Taren and Lai were fighting just inches from him and the look on Harry’s face was clear. Deal with it.

 

“Kids, stop that.” He said, not nearly as loud, or authoritative, enough as the two little ones just stopped and looked at him for a moment, before going back to their fight.

 

“Blaise, sort it now.” Harry said with a glare. “This had better be dealt with before I’m finished with this little one or you’re going to be in so much trouble, you won’t even be sleeping on a settee, you’ll be in the kids’ tree house.”

 

Blaise swallowed at the deadly seriousness in Harry’s voice and in his eyes and he got on his knees beside a pushing and shoving pair of little ones and copied what Harry had done and pulled them apart and held their little arms in his large hands.

 

“I told you two to stop it; this is not any way for you to behave.” He said as sternly as he could and still it sounded a little weak, but both Taren and Lai turned puppy eyes to him and having those two pairs of contrasting eyes peering at him as if he’d turned into an ogre and eaten their favourite toy in front of them made him search for Harry.

 

Harry gave him a nod as he picked up a near newborn baby and cuddled the lively little child and Blaise swallowed before looking back to Taren and Lai, he knew the rules, he knew how to do this, he just hated doing it.

 

“You two know it’s not nice to hit one another, you know it’s wrong to hit anyone and you know we don’t like you fighting at all with anyone.” Blaise told them.

 

“But Dada, Tar took my bwankie!” Lai sniffled pathetically, looking at him through huge, watery eyes and Blaise felt his heart clench in sympathy and his arms trembled with the need to hold his child close.

 

“Stay firm Blaise.” Harry’s voice cut into his thoughts.

 

Blaise looked over to him and took comfort and strength from him. He was sat with the two new babies, one in each arm, obviously not going to get up to deal with this, trusting him to do it himself. He swallowed at the pressure, but he knew what he had to do. He turned to Taren.

 

“Is this true Taren?”

 

Taren looked down and scuffed a socked toe on the carpet. “Lay-lay wasn’t listening to me Daddy.”

 

“So you thought snatching Lai’s blanket would help?” Blaise asked.

 

Taren nodded, eyes just as tear filled as Lai’s and Blaise felt his heart breaking further after every moment he didn’t pull them into a hug.

 

“You know snatching things is never right. If you want to get someone’s attention, and they won’t answer you calling their name, you tap them on the shoulder. You do not hit, you do not snatch, you do not yell, bite, kick or throw things, do you understand?”

 

Taren nodded.

 

“Now Lai, you know not to fight sweetheart.”

 

Lai nodded and snuggled the snatched blanket that had caused the fight.

 

“Apologise to one another.”

 

The two hugged like only awkward standing toddlers could and said soft, sweet sorries to one another before they broke apart and Lai went to turn and go back to the toys the two had been playing with before the fight and Blaise swallowed as he held the tiny arm tighter to stop Lai from wandering off.

 

“No Lai, you know you have to have a time out.”

 

“Dada Blay, no punish!” Lai begged, stamping a tiny foot and pulling on his arm, which still held onto Lai’s upper arm, not letting go, no matter how much he wanted to just let his tiny babies go and play without the time out, they had apologised and they understood what they had done was wrong, why wasn’t that enough? Why did they need a time out as well?

 

“Lai! Stop it and stay still!” Blaise said as firmly as he could manage, helped along by seeing the brewing tantrum about to happen.

 

Lai instead went into a full blown tantrum and started screaming and tugging on him to try and get loose.

 

“Taren, go and sit on the naughty step and I’ll come and get you when your time out is over.”

 

Blaise let Taren’s little arm go and watched as the little two year old went out into the hall and Blaise hoped that Taren sat on the bottom step and didn’t wander away from his pathetic attempt at punishing them.

Harry obviously thought the same thing as he got up, carrying the two newborns, and peeked out into the hall. He gave a nod to him and then gave him a look that clearly said to finish it and Blaise looked at a screaming Lai and swallowed. He hated punishing the younger children even more than he did the older children.

 

“Lai!” He said loudly while making sure he didn’t shout, using both hands now to hold both of Lai’s upper arms.

 

When the little toddler stopped and looked at him, face red, tears streaming, Blaise almost lost it, but he held himself firm. When he took too long to say anything and Lai went to scream again, Blaise gave a soft exclamation that stopped the sullen toddler short.

 

“Lai, you know what you did was wrong, screaming and crying about it isn’t going to stop you from being punished.” Blaise said.

 

“No punish Dada! No!”

 

“Yes, now go into the corner and think about why you’ve be put there until I come and get you.”

 

“No!”

 

Blaise sighed and picked Lai up and physically put Lai in the corner as he had seen Nasta and Draco do on occasion when a child had refused to go to the designated time out zone on their own. He knew also that if Lai refused to stay there he had to physically put the little two year old back into the corner as many times as it took for Lai to do a full two minutes in the corner, which could sometimes be a very long time.

 

“You stay there until I come and get you, do you understand me?”

 

Lai looked up at him with such a heart broken face Blaise actually swallowed. He stood with his arms folded and looked at the two year old with a raised eyebrow.

Lai screwed up gorgeous eyes and flumped to the floor on a nappy covered bottom and cried. Blaise’s stance softened and he didn’t know what to do, he went to crouch down.

 

“Don’t, just leave it Blaise.” Harry encouraged. “Taren’s been on the step for almost three minutes, that’s too long already.”

 

Blaise swallowed and left Lai to go and get Taren from the step. He explained why Taren was on the step, got the two year old to understand him and he was surprised when he was hugged and got a kiss and an ‘I love you Daddy’ from his little one, he had just punished Taren, the two year old should hate him, but here he was instead, Taren clutched in his arms, the little child was clinging to him like a limpet, arms around his neck and legs around his waist.

He went back into the living room and he kissed Taren and set his ninth child down on the floor and Taren gave his legs one last hug before everything was over and forgotten and the trouble making two year old dived into the mess of toys already scattered on the floor.

Blaise went and got Lai, who was sobbing on the carpet, making whining, crying noises that made Blaise feel like a monster.

 

“Do you know why you’re here?” Blaise asked.

 

Lai nodded miserably.

 

“Tell me why.”

 

“Fi…fi…fighting with…with Tarwen.” Lai sobbed.

 

“Why were you punished for fighting with Taren?”

 

“Fighting is naughty.” Lai said rubbing little eyes.

 

“So you understand why I had to punish you?”

 

Lai nodded and stood up, wrapping Blaise in a hug.

 

“I come out now?”

 

“Yes sweetheart, you can come out now.”

 

“Love you Dada.”

 

“I love you too baby, no more fighting though, okay?”

 

“‘Kay.” Lai sniffled, giving Blaise a wet, slobbery kiss before toddling off to play with Taren, as right as rain, like nothing had ever happened.

 

Blaise felt drained as he went and sat on the settee next to Harry and slumped sideways to put a bit of his weight onto him, not too much though, Harry was still holding two sleeping newborns after all.

 

“I’m so proud of you. You did brilliantly.” Harry said with a smile. “I know you don’t like it. None of us do Blaise, but discipline is a crucial part of their structured childhoods and we as parents need to give them those boundaries and to punish them when they cross them.”

 

“I know, I don’t think I’ll ever like doing it though.”

 

“How about a bit of positive reinforcement later tonight?” Harry said with a naughty wink and an eyebrow wiggle.

 

Blaise smirked happily at that thought. “I think that might work.”

 

Harry laughed and went back to humming and snuggling the two babies in his arms and Blaise sat at the opposite end of the settee watching him. He felt like he had overcome a barrier today and it was all thanks to Harry, who was such an amazing Mother that he would do anything for his children, even if that included occasionally punishing bad behaviour, and he was right, it was a crucial part of their structure and with so many of them, if they didn’t praise the good and punish the bad, then everything was going to descend into chaos before Braiden was seven years old.

They needed the order and the routine to survive with so many children and the kids needed structure to grow up well. This was the best way to achieve that and as he watched Harry Mother their two newest additions to their family, Blaise felt that maybe he would be able to punish the kids a little more easily from now on. He’d never like it or want to do it, but if it was necessary then it was necessary and it had to be done so he had to just grit his teeth and do it in the future, it might eventually come easier to him, but he would never, ever enjoy it.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X 

 

Myron hid a smirk behind his wine glass as he watched Harry chastising one of his many grandchildren for bad table manners. The lively lad in question had used a fist to grab a handful of pasta sauce and smeared half of it over his mouth and chin. It was no less than he expected of Max’s son, but watching Harry fluttering about him like a Mother hen, squawking at him, was very amusing.

 

“Farren! Eat your food with a fork!” Harry said without any real heat, speaking volumes of how often this battle had taken place over the years.

 

“No!” Farren declared as stubborn as only a five year old could be as he hunched over his plate and used his hand to eat his pasta and sauce.

 

“Farren, you should listen to Mummy!” Braiden chastised his younger brother with a scowl, sitting prim and proper and eating with meticulous manners, Myron approved immensely of Braiden’s manners and behaviour; it was just a shame that the Maddison genes ran so strong in Farren, and apparently Calix, who threw half a cherry tomato at Taren, who threw it right back.

 

“Oi!” Harry said exasperatedly. “Behave at the table! Calix, Taren, no throwing food!”

 

“You were right.” Richard leaned into him to whisper. “Coming to this family dinner _was_ fun.”

 

Myron’s smirk widened and he let a small, deep chuckle slip.

 

“Harry does look more than a little…” Myron paused to find the right word, but Richard beat him too it.

 

“Harried?” Richard grinned.

 

Myron chuckled again, but nodded. “Yes, poor soul. Wait until they’re teenagers.”

 

“Ooo, I don’t envy them of that job, it was hard with our five. Imagine if we had had this lot?”

 

“What do you mean? You were right there amongst our teenagers misbehaving, you overgrown child.” Myron pointed out in a long suffering way.

 

Richard grinned. “It was hard work being each of their best friends.” He defended.

 

Myron huffed and went back to watching Harry juggle the baby on his hip, the toddlers crawling under the table and his older children going wild, except for Braiden, who was scowling at his brothers and sisters.

 

“Not that this isn’t hilarious to watch, but was there a reason we were invited to dinner?” Myron asked after Harry had managed to control his children enough to get them all sitting down at the same time. Max being no help at all as he laughed at the children’s antics and urged them on, only when Harry’s back was turned though, which wasn’t amusing Draco or Blaise in the least.

 

“Mummy’s having another baby!” Tegan burst out happily. “We get another baby, Granddad Myan.”

 

“Tegan.” Harry sighed before he slumped in defeat and waved his hand. “Well, there you have it, I’m pregnant again, a month gone.”

 

“You’ve only just had your last clutch.”

 

“Tell that to the new clutch that’s forming.” Harry grunted as he tried to clean up the table a bit, but gave it up as an impossible task and sat down instead with a defeated sigh.

 

“You must be wonder woman.” Richard laughed.

 

Harry glared daggers at him across the table.

 

“Did I come at a bad time?” Aneirin asked as he followed Nasta into the kitchen.

 

“No, it’s pretty much always like this.” Max answered with a grin. “We tried to keep your place clean, but…well, not a lot escaped the vicious battle that happened here this evening.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes and juggled two toddlers both clamouring for his attention. Aneirin marvelled at his ability to do so as he sat down at a relatively clean area. Harry was a brilliant Mother and he couldn’t have wished for a better submissive for his youngest son, he clapped Nasta on the shoulder and shared those thoughts between a look and Nasta grinned and his face softened as he looked back at Harry.

Aneirin could see the love there and knew that Nasta knew he had made the right choice with Harry too. Aneirin looked at the collection of squalling, noisy children sat, or mostly sat, around the table, all eating, chatting, talking and laughing. They were all happy, their socks were clean and their hair was brushed, even if some of them had pasta sauce rubbed in here or there. He smiled. His grandchildren were happy, his son was happy and his son’s mates were happy. What more could a Father and Grandfather want?

When he heard the news he had been brought over here for he smiled, even as little Lai bounced on his lap energetically and his one hand hovered over Leolin, who was sat on the table in front of him. Once upon a time he would have been worried, but he knew better now. Harry was an amazing person, an amazing organiser and planner, and most of all, he was an amazing Mother, anyone could see that about him and another child would be just as loved as their older brothers and sisters, Harry had a lot of love to give and a lot of time to dedicate to his children, who never went without as Harry had the amazing epiphany of playing group games and he made sure each child saw all their parents each day and always made time for them, even if he couldn’t spare it or if he was in the middle of doing the washing or cleaning. It was almost like he could read his children’s minds sometimes with the way he always seemed to know what they wanted or what they were thinking.

No, Aneirin wasn’t worried as he watched Harry temper down two tantrums before they could start, chastise three children without reducing them to sullen tears and helped feed several of the younger children who needed help, all in the space of half an hour. Harry was amazing and he was sure that Harry was the one holding the family together, he drew all his lovers and his children to him, like the sun to the solar system, Harry was the sun at the centre of all their lives, the dominants and the children, and only when Harry was no longer around, no matter how terrible and dark those thoughts might be, only if Harry wasn’t in this family any longer, only then would he worry, for in his mind, as long as Harry was a part of the family, everything was kept well in hand.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I just love all of the children, they’re so amazing and each one is different and they’re all so diverse it’s been amazing to create them all and flesh them all out into their own budding personalities, I’ve truly loved it, so be prepared to see more little babies in future. I’ve got thirteen planned and fleshed out so far, all the ones you’ve seen are purposefully planned people, I’m going to have to plan a few more soon, just in case, but Harry’s next five pregnancies are planned and I know when he’ll conceive and when he’ll give birth, which should make the heat scenes easier, not the smut scenes though, I’m still having trouble with them, so the next few sex scenes might be glossed over I’m afraid.
> 
> I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter, as I had amazing fun writing it, let me know what you all think lovelies,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	31. Cruelty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is for Miranda, one of my Facebookers who wanted to see angry Harry and calm Nasta.
> 
> Warning – This is a future chapter!

Cruelty

 

Harry had hardly felt so angry, his body vibrated with the anger and all because some filth had called his Leolin retarded.

 

“Mummy, what does retarded mean?” Tegan asked innocently, her little face crumpled with her curiosity.

 

“Why is _our_ Leo retarded?” Farren asked, his little brow creased as he tried to understand if the women were insulting his brother or not.

 

“He’s not!” Harry hissed, still glaring at the little group of women whispering about him.

 

“What does it mean?” Braiden asked, copying Harry and giving his best glare to the group of women.

 

“It means stupid.” Harry said as lightly as he could.

 

“Am I ‘tarded?” Leolin asked stiltedly, clutching onto his leg and clinging to him as if to hide from the spiteful words spat at him that he didn’t understand. Harry’s anger grew hotter.

 

“No sweetheart, you’re not.” Harry assured, smoothing his jet black hair from his pale, peachy face gently, his hands shaking almost uncontrollably.

 

“Of course you’re not!” Tegan huffed. “You’re silly sometimes Leo, like Daddy Max, but you’re not stupid, even if you are an icky boy.”

 

Harry was so proud of his children as they rushed to reassure their brother, who smiled with his almost full mouth of teeth, he was still missing a couple of his molars, but it wasn’t as noticeable as he had all of his front teeth finally.

 

“None of my children are stupid, you’re all very smart, very clever little boys and girls and I love you all for the special people you are.” Harry told them seriously.

 

“I no go s’hool.” Leolin said sadly. Loudly.

 

Harry crouched down and tried to ignore the giggling from the women and lone man across the playground as they heard Leolin speak in his choppy, stilted, often mispronounced words.

 

“You don’t go to school Leolin because you’re my special little boy, not because you’re stupid. You’re very clever sweetheart; you know your numbers and your letters, your shapes and your colours. You can even write your name now!” Harry said enthusiastically.

 

Leolin smiled then and stood a little straighter, even if he was still holding onto Harry’s leg for support, he was refusing to be carried or held like the younger babies. It made Harry’s heart ache for his little Faerie baby. Muggles would never understand how special he really was, how could they?

The school bell rang and all the kids in the playground started scrambling for last minute hugs and kisses from their parents. Calix barrelled back to Harry from where he had been playing with a group of three other boys and Harry bent to catch him in a hug, getting a sloppy kiss on the mouth before Calix was gone again. Harry chuckled as he kissed his other children goodbye, his almost seven year old Braiden looking around before giving him a quick kiss as rushing off, his six year old quintuplets and his five year old twins. Draco was on the nursery drop off today with Taren before he went to work, so he was herding the little monster into the morning nursery class while Nasta, who wasn’t working today, was at home with their youngest ones.

 

“Have a nice day and be good!” He stressed to their retreating backs. He chuckled and held Leolin's hand. “How about we go home love?” He asked. “I would absolutely love another drawing for the kitchen wall.”

 

“Mummy want pic’ure?” Leolin asked, his gold eyes sparkling in joy and pride that Harry wanted one of _his_ pictures for the wall.

 

“Oh yes, I’d love one Leolin, are you going to use your special crayons or do you want to use pencils?”

 

“Cay’on.” Leolin nodded decisively.  

 

“Okay, I’ll get you lots of paper and your crayons out for you, but remember if Macie wants to draw too, you have to share.”

 

“No share with Macie.” Leolin pouted, stamping his tiny foot in his tiny shoes. “My pic’ure, my cay’on!”

 

“You have to share with Macie, Leolin.” Harry told him sternly.

 

Leolin pouted, but he nodded sullenly. Harry knew if Macie actually did want to draw with Leolin though he’d have a hell of a fight on his hands. He was almost glad for Nasta being home with him today.

 

“How do you cope with him?”

 

Harry’s shoulders tightened automatically and he turned to see the evil face of one of giggling women.

 

“Excuse me?” Harry asked softly, dangerously. His mates would have known to back off, but this woman didn’t know him, didn’t know what he was or what he was capable of if pushed.

 

“How do you coping having a… _special_ child?”

 

Harry’s free hand clenched into a fist and he tugged Leolin directly behind him so he couldn’t see the woman and her sneering face, feeling little hands clenching into his jeans. There was no way he could stop Leolin hearing whatever vile spew this woman was going to spit at him and it made Harry feel angrier, more defenceless to protect Leolin from this sort of situation and his gums and fingernails ached to release the weapons he had been given by nature to defend his tiny child huddling behind him, being forced to listen to this ridiculous woman, but the thought of what life would then be like for him, his lovers and all of his children stopped him from tearing her into so much meat. He was getting better at controlling the anger and murderous urges of his Dracken the older he got.

 

“I have eighteen special children.” He said as mildly and calmly as he could. “All of my children are special to me; it’s not my hang up if you can’t see your own child as anything special, maybe you should try harder at that.”

 

The woman’s face flushed and she gritted her teeth. “At least my daughter isn’t too retarded to go to school.”

 

“Leolin has personalised tutors that suit him better than mainstream teachers, because I can afford to look after my children no matter their needs. True the majority of my children don’t need extra care and we find public school good enough for their education, though I am worried about the curriculum, seeing as every single one of my children are the top of their classes I feel they are going unchallenged, where does that leave your daughter by the way?” Harry asked with a false look on his face, before humming as the woman flushed darker. “It doesn’t matter, even with eighteen children to look after I can still find the time to give them everything they want and give them what they need to get to the top of their lessons, so again, I have eighteen special children, and all of them are getting the attention and care they need, so maybe you should focus more on your own children rather than picking and poking at other peoples just to make yourself feel better about your lack of pride in your children.”

 

Harry left then, quickly, almost dragging poor Leolin behind him. He was so angry his wings were vibrating against his spine. He needed to get home. Now.

As soon as they rounded the corner, Harry pulled Leolin up into his arms and ran with him. He tried desperately to cling onto his Dracken attributes; he couldn’t lose it here, not here, not in public, not surrounded by Muggles.

 

“Mummy? Why we run?” Leolin asked, even as Harry cradled his head and neck, just in case.

 

“We need to get home Leolin.” Harry panted as he ran to the empty space behind a shop. It was for emergencies, they normally walked the children to school because there were so many of them to round up. “Hold on love.”

 

Harry Apparated and as soon as he was home, as soon as he had put Leolin down and stepped away, his full Dracken side burst out with a guttural growl that echoed through the house and stopped the baby giggles from the room next door short.

Nasta was there before Harry could get his bearings back and wrapped him up tight in his arms, his own Dracken side had come out and his black and yellow wings cocooned around him tight and warm like a living blanket.

 

“I’m here, I’m here. What happened?”  Nasta asked softly.

 

Harry was practically humming with anger as he shook from temper in Nasta’s arms.

 

“Those filthy people called Leolin retarded, right there in front of him!” Harry burst out in an almost silent hiss so Leolin wouldn’t hear him. “All the other Mums and Dads were giggling and laughing at him as he tried to ask me for reassurance, I almost damned us all, I almost lost it in public Nas.”

 

Harry clenched his hands tight, the bite of pain as his claws went through his palms just made him angrier and he felt a swell of magic under his skin and he gasped, his first thought of little Leolin in the room with him.

 

“Leo love, go and check on your siblings please.” Nasta said, already a step ahead of him. “Shut the door on your way out.”

 

Leolin gave them a frightened look, but he did as he was asked and toddled off next door, closing the door behind him.

Nasta let Harry go and he looked into those enraged green eyes and just knew that no amount of damage control would help now. He warded the room quickly and nodded to Harry who he could see was losing the battle against himself.

 

“Have at it love, just let it all go, you’ll feel better. The kids can’t hear you and they can’t be hurt, scream it out if you have to and then we’ll talk.” 

 

Harry breathed deeply to try and calm himself, but he knew Nasta was right, it wasn’t going to work, he needed to yell this anger out, release it like a poison and only then would he feel better.

He had barely brought up the scene of the other Mums and Dads laughing at his little Faerie baby before he was screaming at the top of his lungs and letting his magic destroy the table and settees, the windows, the bookshelf, the stupid little knickknacks scatted around that he absolutely hated but tolerated for Draco’s sake. He destroyed everything, but he actively made sure his magic stayed away from Nasta. It wasn’t Nasta he was angry at, it wasn’t Nasta’s fault, even if Leolin was his son, even if the Faerie blood did come from Nasta’s bloodline, he refused to be ashamed of Nasta’s or Leolin's blood heritage.

When he had let everything out, all of his magic and pent up anger, he fell to his knees and gripped his own hair tightly, then Nasta’s arms were around him and holding him tight to a muscled chest and Harry breathed in Nasta’s scent, the musky smell that was purely Nasta and the fire and ash smell of dragon was stronger since he was back on active handling, and he let himself be rocked and calmed.

 

“Do you feel better?” Nasta asked.

 

Harry nodded his head in those arms and against that chest and only then did Nasta pull away and let Harry see the damage that had been done by his magic and his pure anger.

Harry just shook his head and sighed sadly.

 

“Don’t let the kids see this. I don’t want them to know how badly today affected me.”

 

“What happened? You said they were calling Leolin retarded?”

 

Harry nodded sadly. “Yeah, right in front of him, where everyone could hear, all the kids were asking then what it meant and why our Leo was retarded and I had to explain, right there on the playground what it meant and I had to reassure Leolin that he wasn’t stupid or retarded, but he was upset anyway and pointed out that he wasn’t in school with the others, so he understands he’s different, but I don’t think he gets why he’s different and he doesn’t understand why he can’t do the same as the others can.”

 

“I’ll talk to him again and explain more about what he is and what his heritage means.” Nasta sighed. “I’ll take the kids to school tomorrow, those hags never give me or Max any trouble, though they started on Blaise once.”

 

“I remember, he got banned from the school grounds for punching that other Dad. He got a right lecture from the Head teacher about decorum and fighting on school grounds, even if he did wait until all the kids were out of sight before actually pummelling him.”

 

“That’s right. Maybe we should give them a taste of the acid tongued Mister Malfoy tomorrow instead, aristocratic enough not to resort to fist fighting, but steely enough to cut to the heart with that tongue of his.”

 

“I love that tongue of his.” Harry laughed.

 

“You loved this tongue of mine last night if I remember correctly.” Nasta growled heatedly.

 

Harry grinned. “Oh I did. Until the two hours it took for little Momo to wake up again for another feed came, then it was disappointment I was groaning in.”

 

Nasta laughed and held Harry tight. He hoped he felt better now that all the anger was gone and he was back to smiling and laughing. He buried his own anger deep, deep inside of himself, he’d let it out in private later, or with Max when the others were all asleep, but he didn’t want to set Harry off again, not today at least, and he needed to vent himself, they would all need to vent later when they heard what had happened, but he’d have to be the strong one for them then and bottle himself up tight, at least until he was on his own. He breathed deeply and reminded himself that he was the top dominant; this was the sacrifice he had to make for that position of trust.

 

“Let’s go and save the poor kids, they’re probably wondering what the fuck is going on.” Harry said, brushing his hands through his hair and scrubbing his face before plastering a smile on.

 

Nasta could tell that it was faked around the edges, but the kids wouldn’t know, Harry’s body language had relaxed and he looked fine, it was the look in his eyes that let Nasta know that what had been said had truly troubled Harry, had rattled him more than he was going to let on. They’d talk more in depth about it later on tonight, when all the kids had been put down to bed, they’d all talk about it and get it all up and out, but until then, they had ten little ones to look after.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Nasta had locked the door to the room Harry had destroyed and when Max came home with a gaggle of overstimulated school kids, they couldn’t understand why one of the rooms was locked when they normally had free reign of the house.

Blaise hadn’t had time to notice as he dropped Taren off from nursery class at lunch time before getting a quick kiss and rushing back off to work, but Max was home for the day now.

 

“It needs cleaning up that’s all.” Harry said tightly.

 

“I’ll help you clean up Mum!” Braiden offered; as he was always wont to do when Harry struggled with housework.

 

“Me too Mummy!” Calix said.

 

“No, this is an adult’s job, not for you to mess with.” Harry said. “Go and change out of your uniforms, hang them up nice mind! And then go and play.”

 

“What happened and why is it an adult job?” Max asked as soon as the seven school children ran upstairs to get out of their uniforms.

 

Harry just shook his head. “I had an outburst. I’ll tell you later.”

 

“No, tell me now.” Max said as he grabbed Harry’s wrist lightly as he went to turn away. “Are you okay? What happened?”

 

“I’m fine; I just needed to work some anger out.”

 

“Why though, you don’t just lose it so bad you have to shut off a whole room. How bad was it?”

 

“Remember when I went ape shit on Amelle back at Alexander’s birthday all those years ago? It was that bad.”

 

Max’s gorgeous blue eyes widened and he looked at the door hard as if he could suddenly see through it if he stared long and hard enough.

 

“Were any children in there with you?” He asked first and foremost and while Harry appreciated that the children’s safety was his top priority, he didn’t like the insinuation that he would put his children in harm’s way.

 

“Of course not! What do you…”

 

Max cut his speech off with a hand over his mouth.

 

“I know, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it that way. But it’s all I could think of that would make you this angry, something to do with the kids.”

 

“It was, but I would never have lost it in front of them, not that badly.”

 

“It must have been bad though.”

 

Harry sighed. “It was this morning, after the school drop off. There was a group of other parents…”

 

Max’s hand went through his hair and he had an annoyed look on his face.

 

“Picking on us again? Just because they’re fucking jealous that we’re closed polyamorous. ‘Oh how do five men raise children properly’, ‘those poor children are going to be messed up later on in life’ and my favourite ‘what do the children call you all?’ Just ignore them love, seriously, just because they can’t make their white-bread, one man, one woman monogamous relationships work they have to try and pick at ours.”  

 

Harry snorted. “No, that was aimed at Blaise, that’s why he punched that one guy, but this time it was at our kids.”

 

Max’s eyes flashed in anger so quickly before it was gone that Harry almost thought he had imagined it, except he had felt the tightening of the hand still holding his wrist.

 

“What did they say? Those bastards, I’ll tear them all apart!”

 

“Calm down, the kids could hear you!” Harry hissed. “This is why I wanted to wait until they were all in bed!”

 

“I think that’s for the best.” Max growled deeply.

 

Harry went on tiptoe and dragged Max down into a kiss by his shirt collar.

 

“I love you, but calm down, I’ll tell all of you what happened later, but for now, go and sort out the kids, they’re rolling around like a herd of elephants up there. Check on the newborns for me too please, they haven’t made a sound for at least an hour.”

 

Max nodded and went off upstairs and Harry sighed and went into the living room and to Nasta and the six younger children and Leolin, who had been upset he had been sent out of the room in the morning, but had forgotten all about it with a ream of paper at his disposal and his special pack of crayons, which included glitter ones.

Leolin liked drawing, so he had gotten his own special pack of crayons for his birthday, but the other kids had crayons and pencils too, huge bumper packs that were usually used in schools with six crayons and pencils of every colour so there was minimal fighting over who had the blue crayon first or the green pencil next.

Harry sat behind Leolin and smoothed his hair back and played with it and his back while he drew yet another picture, Harry could barely make out an animal shape that could have been a frog and what could have possibly been a tree, or maybe a person. Leolin would tell him when he was done what it was a picture of, but it would still go on the kitchen wall. They had a limit for things like that, because they had so many children, at the beginning of the week, all the walls and the fridge was wiped clean, ready for new pictures and more notes from school saying how well behaved the kids were or another ten out of ten piece of homework that would be displayed. Harry couldn’t bear to throw any of it away however and instead when it was taken down from the walls he packed it into box files with his children’s names written on the front in black marker. Draco hated the clutter, Harry hated his god awful knickknacks, they compromised.  

Little Lai came and sat on Harry’s leg and snuggled in, his little three year old still loved cuddles and Harry was glad. He loved cuddling his children and the first time that Braiden had ducked from one of his kisses in the playground had stung like a slap, though Braiden had assured him when he got home that he still wanted kisses, just not in front of his friends.

Harry smiled sadly, his little boy wasn’t so little anymore, he was growing up, already six years old, only five months from turning seven, and only four years away from Hogwarts. The time was going too quickly and Harry held sweet little Lai tighter, kissing the back of the head that was displayed to him as his three year old babbled about this and that. Lai would be in nursery next year too.

He knew he couldn’t keep them babies forever, but the very thought of Braiden going to Hogwarts in just four years, then five years after that he’d come into his Dracken inheritance and he would never be Harry’s again. He’d have a mate of his own; he’d be starting a family of his own.

His friends told him that he still had plenty of babies to Mother and look after, but they didn’t understand, it wasn’t the same, Braiden would always be his baby, all of them would always be his babies, it didn’t matter if he had a hundred babies to look after at home, he still wanted Braiden too and the selfish thought made his stomach clench, because he knew he couldn’t keep him, he couldn’t keep any of them and it was an almost physical pain. He didn’t _want_ to let go.

Lai turned to grin at him, showing a tangle of silver that had once been Draco’s favourite necklace.

 

“Oh Lai! What have you done?!” Harry burst out as he unwound the chunky silver links from Lai’s fingers and wrist and held out the ruined necklace to Nasta, who grimaced at the state it was in.

 

“This was pure silver; Draco’s going to go ballistic.” Nasta sighed as he tried to straighten it out and showed the bent and broken links. “I’ll try and get it fixed; hopefully he won’t look for it before it’s been replaced.”

 

“Lai, you know not to go in Daddy Draco’s jewellery box!”

 

“It wasn’t me Mummy! Xabie gived it to me! Promise.” Lai said sniffling pathetically, blue eyes filling with tears that slipped over thick eyelashes.

 

Harry rolled his eyes but pulled Lai further onto his lap and tucked his little child under his arm and looked around the room and he found his Xabe in the corner, with more contents of Draco’s jewellery box.

 

“Xabiere Xanthus Xerxes! You come over here right now!” Harry called out firmly.

 

Xabie jerked up and by the face alone Harry knew that Xabe knew that what had been done was wrong and naughty. Xabe moved over to him in that slow, dragging walk that toddlers had when they knew they were in trouble and didn’t want to get to their parents any quicker.

Xabe stood in front of Harry and peeked up through the fall of dark, jet black hair that was all Harry’s and rolled little fingers around the damaged jewellery.

Harry took the bracelet and three sets of expensive, stoned cuff links from Xabiere’s hands and checked it over, noticing the tiny teeth marks in the soft gold bracelet that was an heirloom from Draco’s great-great grandfather Septimus Malfoy.

 

“Xabiere, you know not to go in Daddy Draco’s jewellery box, why would you do this?” Harry asked the little two year old, who shuffled little feet in little trainers.

 

“I sowwy Mamma.” Xabie said sadly and Harry believed that Xabiere truly was sorry, but it wasn’t good enough to sorry after the damage had been done.

 

“Go and stand in the corner Xabe and think about what you’ve done.”

 

The two year old started crying, even as Xabe moved to go and cry in the corner of the room.

 

“Draco’s going to be devastated; this is his great-grandfather’s bracelet and his best cuff links.” Harry sighed.

 

Nasta held out his hand and took the jewellery and stood up. “There’s no use worrying about it now, I’ll take this to a jeweller and see if they can do anything about it, I’ll be back soon.”

 

Max came into the room and his face was white. “Draco’s jewellery box is open and tipped all across the top landing.”

 

“Did you check for anything damaged?” Harry asked.

 

“Yeah, nothing was damaged but there are things missing. His favourite necklace, a couple pairs of cuff links and his heirloom bracelet.”

 

Harry sighed and tugged at his hair. “Xabiere had it. Some of the pieces are damaged.”

 

Max groaned and looked to the little child crying in the corner. “What have you done Xabie?” He said quietly.

 

“I’m going to go see if they can be fixed.” Nasta said as he popped the pieces into an envelope and tugged on his jacket.

 

“Daddy Nasta, where are you going?” Tegan demanded, her sweet face pulled into a frown as she put her hands on her hips and pouted.

 

“I’ve got to go out for a minute sweetheart, I’ll be back soon.”

 

“But I wanted to play _before_ you had work.” Tegan almost hissed.

 

“She gets that from you.” Max told Harry with a grin. Harry’s eyes narrowed at him and he held large hands out and laughed. “Like Mother like daughter.”

 

Harry bared his teeth. “You’re on nappy duty tonight.” He declared.

 

“All of them?!” Max asked horrified.

 

“All of them! Every single last nappy!”

 

Max groaned and flumped onto the settee and dragged Lai backwards onto his lap, the little three year old giggling and snuggling in.

 

“We have nine kids in nappies.” Max pouted.

 

“Then you had better be prepared!”

 

“I still have nappy on!” Lai giggled.

 

“You had better learn to use the potty at night then.” Max teased.

 

“No! I want my pull ups!” Lai demanded.

 

“You tell nasty Daddy Max, Lay-Lay!” Tegan nodded her approval.

 

“What is this, gang up on Daddy day, tell your Mother off too.”

 

“No!” Tegan said as she came and gave Harry a hug. “I love Mummy! Mummy makes me Princess cakes.”

 

Nasta looked very unimpressed.

 

“Don’t you have a jeweller to visit?” Harry asked mildly. “Draco and Blaise will be home in a few hours.”

 

Nasta gave him a look.

 

“It’s a few pink cupcakes Nas, decorated with edible glitter. It’s all organic, natural ingredients and they’re made with real strawberry pieces. Stop having a penguin.”

 

“I believe the expression is have a cow.” Nasta replied unimpressed.

 

“A cow would hurt worse; I don’t want you hurt that badly. Just penguin bad.”

 

Max laughed uncontrollably and even Nasta cracked a smile, shaking his head. He kissed Harry’s temple as he walked past and he patted Tegan on top of her long black hair and left to go and sort out Draco’s jewellery.

Harry kissed Tegan’s little face and went to Xabiere, touching the little back through the shirt he had put on his child that morning. He crouched down and turned Xabie to look at him and steeled himself to finish the punishment as that teary face looked to him and tried to hug him.

Harry held firm, holding the little arms out from himself and he looked at Xabe sternly.

 

“Xabiere, you know why you’re here don’t you?” He asked.

 

Xabe nodded and sniffled.

 

“Tell me why.”

 

“Fo…for going in…in Daddy’s shiny box.” Xabiere hiccupped.

 

“Why was that naughty Xabiere?” Harry asked.

 

“Because…because it not mine.” Xabe said, rubbing the back of one hand over little eyes.

 

“Your Daddy Draco loves his shiny things Xabiere and you’ve gone and broken them, what is your Daddy Draco going to say when he’s told?”

 

Xabiere’s face turned horrified and the tears came thicker and faster.

 

“No! No Mummy no tell!” Xabiere sobbed trying to reach him and climb into his lap.

 

“You want me to _lie_ to your Daddy Draco?” Harry asked unimpressed. “What do we teach about lying Xabiere?”

 

Xabiere sniffled and rubbed little eyes once again. “I’m sorry, we don’t tell tales.”

 

“No we don’t sweetheart. You need to say you’re sorry to Daddy Draco for breaking his things, he’s not going to be happy, but you’ve already been punished.”

 

Xabie nodded and sniffled and Harry gave his little child a hug and a kiss.

 

“Go and play then love, no more naughtiness though.”

 

“Okay, I pwomise Mummy.”

 

Harry nodded and stood up, sending his little two year old off into the living room and went back to being a guard, parent…same thing.

He had to drag Taren from where his four year old had climbed the bookshelf, dodge a toddling, sixteen month old Macie, looking out for the twin that trailed after the elder and stop his five year old identical twins from killing one another over a toy car.

 

“I’m sure we own a mad house.” Harry complained to Max as he collapsed next to him and a dozing Lai.

 

Max shifted Lai in his arms, the bulky, muscular appendages making the tiny three year old look dainty. He threw his freed arm over Harry and pulled him into a hug as they watched thirteen children running around and playing, Max snorted as Accident and Emergency started fighting over the same toy yet again, this time a plastic action figure dressed in army gear. It was Regan’s, but those two both wanted it.

 

“Oi! Knock it off or you’ll be put in the playpen!” Harry said seriously.

 

The little twins both looked at him and then pouted.

 

“Mummy, I want mister man!” One said, blue eyes tearing up.

 

“I want him Mummy!” The other said, identical blue eyes leaking tears down peachy cheeks.

 

“You’ll both put him down and play with something else.” Harry said sternly.

 

The two pouted little pink lips, but did as was asked and crawled over to separate piles of toys and grabbed something else to play with.

 

“Mummy, pic’ure.” Leolin said proudly. “I drawed you a ‘abbit and that’s his bed.”

 

Harry pulled Leolin up onto his lap and angled him so Max could see the picture too, apparently the green blob that Harry had thought was a frog was a rabbit and a corner of glitter yellow was his bed.

 

“Who’s this Leolin?” Harry asked, pointing to the tree shaped person.

 

“That’s Baidy; he likes ‘abbits.” Leolin said.

 

“Braiden does like rabbits doesn’t he.” Harry smiled. “This is wonderful Leolin! Thank you so much, let’s go and put it on the wall, shall we?”

 

Leolin nodded enthusiastically and Harry carried him to the kitchen and took a blob of blu-tack and stuck the picture to the wall.

 

“Now I need to make the babies their bottles, go back to Daddy Max, okay sweetheart.”

 

Leolin was so happy and proud of himself that he almost danced back to the living room. Harry chuckled and took the picture back off the wall and wrote carefully on the back what Leolin's picture was of before tacking it back to the wall before going to boil the kettle to make up four bottles.

Blaise came into the kitchen, looking tired, but he was happy as he clung to baby Momo and little Macie. Harry went to him and kissed him to giggles from the kids in his arms.

 

“How was work, do you want a coffee?”

 

“Please, I’d love one. Work was amazing, but I’m exhausted!”

 

“Go into the living room then and sit down. I’ll bring you your coffee.”

 

Blaise grinned and kissed him again and went to take the weight off of his feet. Harry smiled after him and sighed, getting cups down to make tea and coffee.

He made the bottles and shook them up, leaving them to cool naturally, before he made tea and coffee. He took Blaise’s coffee into him and did the second nature dodging and stepping over of children, laughing at Braiden and Farren skulking on the floor, crawling on their bellies with little army men ahead of them, Calix was just behind and beside them with a Barbie doll doing the same thing.

 

“Here you are love.” Harry said as he passed Blaise the mug of coffee and kissed him on the mouth.

 

“When did we get a maid service? Where’s my tea with a kiss?” Max pouted.

 

Harry snorted. “Coming right up Sir.”

 

“You want to beware he doesn’t tip it over your head now.” Blaise informed Max.

 

“He wouldn’t.” Max answered surely then grinned widely. “Lai’s in my lap.”

 

Nasta came home only minutes before Draco and they were all settled as Harry fed the little newborns the bottles.

 

“Have they been alright today?” Draco asked as he sat down and curled his legs under him with a groan, sipping his tea gratefully.

 

“Taren needed time out twice, once for throwing a book at Regan and once for trying to push Macie out of the window. Lai needed a time out for putting several nappies into the toilet and Xabiere needed a time out too.” Nasta told him.

 

“Only four time outs today, they’re getting better.” Max smiled.

 

“I think trying to push one of our sixteen month olds out of the window should be addressed.” Blaise said with a frown. “I don’t like that.”

 

Nasta nodded. “When we have dinner I’ll address it. They should already know that pushing their siblings out of the window is wrong.”

 

“Or shoving their heads into the toilet.” Blaise grimaced as he made them remember when Farren had gotten fed up of Lai crying and had tried to stop the noise by pushing the eleven month old’s head down the toilet.

 

Thankfully Draco had been on his way to the source of the crying and stopped it only seconds later. Farren had been shouted at several times, punished and then sat down and told why what he had done was wrong. It was one of the only times they had shouted at one of their children and it had been fear driven more than anything.

They had all been terrified of what could have happened if Draco hadn’t been on his way to a crying Lai, or if it had taken him a few minutes longer to reach them. Farren had only been three years old at the time, but he was built like Max, tall for his age, stocky and strong. Little Lai hadn’t stood a chance to get Farren off and it had been that which had driven their fear so high.

 

“What did Xabiere get punished for?” Draco asked curiously, pulling the little blue eyed two year old up onto his lap and brushing Harry’s hair from the deep blue eyes that were still rimmed in red. That hair was the bane of his existence and he hated seeing it on his little child. “What did you get a time out for Xabiere?” He asked.

 

“I sowwy Daddy! I sowwy!” Xabiere sobbed falling on Draco and almost knocking his tea from his hands. Draco had to rush to save the tea and he automatically shielded Xabiere from any of the hot tea that might fall. None did and Draco put the cup down quickly as he shifted Xabiere and pulled the little two year old up to hold him.

 

“What’s the matter love? What did you do? I’m sure you’re very sorry.” Draco assured.

 

“No be angry with Xabie.” The little two year old implored, sniffling.

 

“I’m not angry with you Xabiere. Now tell me what you did.”

 

“I…I broke…broke Daddy’s shiny stuff.” Xabie cried out, utterly distraught.

 

Draco looked to Nasta in question and he knew it was bad from Nasta’s face.

 

“He found your jewellery box Draco, I’m sorry, we didn’t know so we couldn’t stop him in time to save some of your jewellery from being broken.”

 

Draco felt like the air had been knocked from his lungs, but aware that he had a distraught two year old in his lap, he shook it off, though he still felt a little shocky.

 

“I’m not angry Xabiere, but you know you’re not to touch anything you find in our bedroom, they’re not toys.”

 

“I like the shiny stuff Daddy, I’m sowwy!”

 

“It’s okay sweetheart, but no more playing with my things, okay?”

 

Xabiere nodded and wiped tears and snot away with the back of a little hand, Draco grimaced and took out a handkerchief and wiped his child’s face and hands.

 

“Go and play.” Draco told the little toddler, his voice automatic and almost plastic, but Xabiere kissed him and Draco moved to support the toddler down onto the floor.

 

“Are you alright Draco?” Blaise asked worriedly.

 

“What was broken?” Draco asked clinically.

 

“I’ve taken them to a jeweller and he says he can fix them.”

 

“That wasn’t what I asked.” Draco replied.

 

“A few cuff links, your necklace and…and I’m sorry Draco but your great-grandfather’s bracelet was damaged too.”

 

Draco nodded his understanding, he didn’t say anything, he just stood up and left. Nasta sighed and tugged on his black hair. He was sure he’d find grey hairs soon, he completely understood now why Dracken’s nearly always went prematurely grey. He’d have a man-made bald spot if he didn’t watch how much hair he tugged out. He sighed louder and sat back in his seat.

 

“That could have been worse.” Max said.

 

“I would have been less worried if he had screamed and shouted.” Nasta answered as he looked at the door. He’d let Draco calm down a bit and then he’d talk to him, maybe it was time they got a safe for all of their valuable things, the kids got into everything and it wasn’t the first time Draco’s jewellery box had been raided, but it was the first time anything had been broken or damaged. They should have learned their lesson the first time.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

By eight o’clock all the kids were in bed, had had their stories and were all sleeping. Harry had cleaned up the mess in the living room with a simple, single wave of his wand.

The five of them were sat at the table, Draco included, and they were all reassuring him and being kind. He was feeling better once told that the jeweller could repair the pieces easily and he admitted that it was his fault, he had left the jewellery box on the vanity area that morning as he rushed to get ready, instead of putting it back in the top cupboard. Nasta had assured him that they were going to get a safe for their valuable things, because Draco never actually wore his great-grandfather’s bracelet, and rarely his favourite necklace, it was only his cuff links he wanted in the mornings, so Nasta suggested they got him another box for his cuff links and put the other pieces in the safe.

 

“Now that that’s sorted, why is the front room locked?” Blaise asked. “I tried to get in there earlier because I think Braiden left Leonie in there and he wanted him, but I couldn’t even open it with magic.”

 

Harry’s mood plummeted and he huddled slightly as the events of that morning came flooding back to him. His mates noticed and Nasta scooted his chair closer and kissed him gently.

 

“It’s alright love.”

 

“What happened?” Blaise asked.

 

“We need to clear that room up, I had a moment.”

 

“Harry said it was a moment like seven years ago, when he unleashed his power and magic on Amelle at granddad Alexander’s birthday party.” Max said, looking worried. “What made you react like that?”

 

Harry sighed and stood up and started pacing.

 

“You said it was to do with the school run?” Max prompted.

 

“That fucker didn’t start on our living arrangements again did he?” Blaise growled. “I don’t mind going up there to make him eat my fist again.”

 

“You’re banned from the school grounds.” Nasta reminded.

 

Blaise snorted. “I’d still go down there and put him in his place. Filthy Muggle.”

 

“It wasn’t, Harry said it was to do with the kids.” Max said, getting them back on track. “What did they say?”

 

Harry dragged a hand through his hair, making it stand up on end. “They were laughing and giggling at me when I turned up, so they must have been talking about me beforehand, I just ignored them and half the kids ran off to meet up with friends, everything was fine. Until they called Leolin retarded.”

 

There was outrage from all of them except for Nasta, who had steeled himself to be the calm rock they needed and Harry, who had worked all of his anger out throughout the day.

 

“How dare they!” Max burst out.

 

“There is nothing wrong with him!” Draco hissed.

 

“I’m going to kill them.” Blaise said seriously.

 

“No one is going to kill anyone.” Nasta said sternly.

 

“They called our baby retarded!”

 

“Just calm down.” Harry encouraged.

 

“Those filthy Muggles call my son retarded and you want me to calm down?!” Draco raged.

 

“Yes, I do, because it doesn’t matter. I put them in their place and I and Nasta reassured Leolin until he forgot all about it and started drawing pictures again. We know how very special he is, but all Muggles see is what is in front of them, they don’t know he’s a Faerie baby, they can’t know, so they’re ignorant and in that blind ignorance comes prejudice and rejection. We knew this! We knew what we were facing when we had Leolin and we can’t fly off the handle at every little thing, at every sneer, stare or remark, it’ll only hurt Leolin more, it’ll draw his attention to the remarks more; make him think about them more and in that he’ll believe them more. No Draco, I don’t want them calling him these things, but my only priority is Leolin and over the course of the day I’ve realised that drawing attention to this is going to make it worse for him in the long run. So we ignore it!” Harry finished his rant harshly.

 

His mates didn’t look happy, but they nodded their understanding and Blaise blew out a breath.

 

“I don’t like it, in fact saying I hated it is an understatement, but anything that makes it a little better or easier for Leolin to deal with, I’ll agree to. You’re right; he’s the priority in this.”

 

Draco nodded and Max deflated like all the hot, angry air had been let out of him. “I still want to punch them in the face.” The huge man grumbled unhappily.

 

“Oh I do too.” Harry said mildly. “That goes without saying. I wanted to run my claws down her until the flesh came off her putrid body in strips leaving her bones clean for me to gnaw on. But we can’t do that without outing ourselves and our family to the world and we’d all be executed, several of our children would be executed and the others extradited as blood carriers. That’s unacceptable!”

 

“That might change…” Draco started.

 

“But the laws haven’t changed yet!” Harry snapped. “And until they do, we are subject to those laws and we have to follow them, so for now, until a time when the laws change, we hide ourselves from their knowledge.”  

 

They all nodded and Nasta stood. “Let’s go and clean up the front room, the newborns will need bottles before bed and by then we’ll be ready for bed ourselves.”

 

Harry snorted and gave Nasta a smile and went to the room he had destroyed. He grimaced at the state of it and when his mates sucked in shocked breaths he looked at their faces.

 

“Damn, now I remember why I don’t make you mad at me.” Max said as he kicked a shard of wood that had once been a table.

 

“You didn’t leave me a single ornament.” Draco sighed.

 

“I am sorry your knickknacks were demolished.” Harry said with a small grin while Draco’s back was turned.

 

Max snorted and punched his shoulder with a wide grin, giving him a wink. Max hated the knickknacks too.

 

“Right, let’s get started, hopefully we’ll be finished by the time the next feed rolls around.”

 

“Don’t forget you’re on nappy duty Max.”

 

Max groaned theatrically. “Oh, I thought you had forgotten.” He pouted.

 

“Not likely.”

 

“How did he get landed with that job?” Draco asked.

 

“He called me a maid.” Harry answered with a shrug.

 

Clean-up was easy with magic, but it was time consuming because they had to get rid of things that were too badly damaged and try to piece together things that could be saved. Draco’s knickknacks, sorry, ornaments, were beyond saving.

 

“This is a good thing really.” Draco said as he hefted a chunk of wood to the side to help rescue a photograph from underneath. “This way I can buy all new ones without you bitching that I have too many.”

 

Harry hid his frown in his arm. He didn’t want anymore, but he sighed, if it kept Draco happy, he’d tolerate it.

 

“Right are we all done?” Nasta asked as he wiped sweat from his neck an hour later.

 

“Yeah, I hope that’s everything.” Blaise said, stretching out his back.

 

Max and Harry waved their wands and the room fixed itself in in ten seconds, looking perfect, if a bit more bare than it had been yesterday.

 

“I’m tired now.” Harry said with a yawn. “Fuck what have our lives become, bone tired and ready for bed at half nine.”

 

Max laughed. “That’s the sacrifice we make for children. We all know Xabie and Lai will crawl into bed with us at the crack of dawn and the newborns will have us up every four hours and Momo will have us up every six hours and Macie will inevitably wake the whole house at fiveish tripping over something or other trying to bunk in with Taren.”

 

Harry snorted. “Come on then, bed time for us, we’ll sort the bottles out, check on the kids, feed the newborns and then get as much sleep as possible before the next round of feedings.”

 

Blaise made the bottles as Harry went up and checked on the kids, they were all sleeping peacefully, all fourteen of them and the four newborns were fast asleep still all wrapped up tight in their white swaddling blankets.

All of them were doing their nightly routine, washing, brushing teeth, changing into pyjamas, when the first newborn woke with a tiny wail.

 

“Come on precious.” Harry cooed, scooping the baby out and sitting in his rocking chair, the same rocking chair he had had from his very first baby, the same rocking chair he had comforted Braiden in from day one and he sat in it now and rocked his baby Ceri gently as Blaise handed him a bottle and he fed his tiny baby lovingly, watching Ceri suckle strongly.

 

“I’ll never get tired of this.” Harry said quietly.

 

“I’ll never get tired of watching you do this.” Max said, pulling his pyjama bottoms up and sitting on their absolutely huge bed to watch him and Ceri together.

 

Harry gave him a knowing smile before turning his attention back to Ceri.

 

It was almost half ten before they actually crawled into bed, with four happily fed, changed and peacefully sleeping newborns. Harry sighed. Today had made him realise that he’d never understand the cruelty of others towards innocent children. He loved all children, no matter if they were his own or not, no matter who their parents were or what those parents had done, he would never have blamed the child and if he had come across a child that needed more attention and care than most, there was no way in hell he would have laughed, sneered or sniggered at them like an ignorant bully, whether he had had Leolin or not, it made no difference to him and he couldn’t understand the cruelty of others, and honestly, he thought as he snuggled into Blaise’s back, he didn’t really want to.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So I hope you lovelies enjoyed this one! Chapter 75 should be up soon, maybe next week if nothing else crops up between now and then.
> 
> I hope you have all enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think of it,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	32. Gentleman's Wash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Chapter Warning: Mentions and talk of past sex. Filthy, sexual words. Mentions of penis beakers, male genitals and post coital messes.

Gentleman’s Wash

Harry’s knees automatically moved to bump into his chin, his thighs resting against his chest as he smiled sleepily as his lovers moved around him. He yawned widely and snuggled up more, wrapping his arms tighter around his legs, ignoring the fluids on his body and that he was lying in multiple wet spots. He just didn’t care. He was so fucking tired that the entire bed could be soaked through and he wouldn’t have moved an inch and wouldn’t have made a murmur the next morning. Draco however, hated all of it and refused to sleep in a dirty bed.

 

“Tell me why I didn’t fuck you unconscious while I had the chance?” Max complained as he was forced from the bed, cutting his post coital bliss short, just so that Draco could change the sheets. “Seriously, how can you do this now, I just want to sleep!”

 

“It’s disgusting. Get up Harry!”

 

“Leave me ‘lone.” Harry mumbled sleepily and he curled up tighter.

 

“I will not sleep in a soiled bed!”

 

“Max is right Draco; you do it all the time when you fall straight asleep after sex.” Nasta tried to reason as he covered a yawn.

 

“How can you all lie in a wet bed?” Draco asked aghast.

 

“Because we’re such savage heathens.” Blaise replied as he fed Leolin his two in the morning feed.

 

Max laughed loudly before he bent forward to snag Harry into his arms, body fluids and all. Harry wriggled pathetically and whined.

 

“I know love, but Draco’s being a fussy princess again and doesn’t want to sleep in a wet bed.”

 

“Sleep.” Harry sighed.

 

“I know you want to sleep, just let Nasta and Draco change the sheets and then you can get back into the fresh, clean bed.”

 

“He’s not getting back into a clean bed when he’s still covered in…in _fluids_!”

 

“Some of those fluids are yours.” Blaise commented grumpily.

 

“I’m not going to throw him into the shower when he’s ready to drop on his feet.” Max said sternly.

 

“Then there’s no point in changing the sheets!” Draco complained.

 

“Good.” Blaise bit out. “We didn’t want them changed in the first place, we just want to sleep.”

 

“At least clean him off if he’s not going in the shower.” Draco almost pleaded.

 

“Why is this still an issue Draco?” Nasta asked seriously.

 

“It’s just disgusting. I wouldn’t be able to sleep!”

 

“We would be able to sleep just fine if you’d damn well let us.” Blaise snapped as he burped Leolin gently, belying his harsh tone.

 

“I don’t understand how!” Draco snapped back.

 

“You do it just fine when you’ve been fucked enough. Nasta, set a reminder, tomorrow we fuck him twice as hard and twice as often.” Max said clearly.

 

Harry let out a sleepy murmur and tried to shift in Max’s arms. Max held him tighter and kissed his sleep slack lips.

Harry hummed lightly, smiling and he cuddled in tighter, shivering as his naked skin realised it was out in the open air and it was getting colder.

 

“If you leave those sheets there, I’ll clean him off with my tongue.” Max said with a naughty grin.

 

Draco pulled a face and quickly stripped the bed.

 

“Seriously Draco, you have issues and we need to address them.” Blaise said as he rocked Leolin gently.

 

“Just because I won’t sleep in a messy, wet bed, you’re saying I’m the one who has issues?” Draco demanded.

 

“We’re your lovers, your mates!” Blaise pointed out. “We’ve seen one another at our worst, at our lowest and most vulnerable. How can you be squeamish about a sleeping in a bit of cum when you’ve been covered in baby sick and snot?”

 

“I didn’t sleep in baby vomit or snot!” Draco replied heatedly as he and Nasta finished making the bed.

 

“I think you missed the point that Blaise was trying to make, Draco.” Nasta pointed out calmly as he gathered the soiled bedcovers into his arms.

 

“Which was what?” Draco said bad temperedly.

 

“That we love you, we’ve seen you at your best and worst and you have seen us at our best and worst, how can sleeping with a few wet spots bother you still?” Nasta asked before he turned and took the sheets down to the laundry hamper.

 

Draco swallowed and huffed. “How does he always do that?” He demanded. “Why am I feeling guilty when sleeping in dirty sheets is so…disgusting!”

 

“It’s only us.” Max pointed out. “It’s not harmful.”

 

“Says the man who welded his cock to the bed sheets when he fell asleep and dried in a wet spot.” Draco snarked.

 

Max winced as he remembered trying to pull his delicate bits away from the bed sheet.

 

“Yeah, that was painful, but that was only once. It doesn’t happen all the time.”

 

“What about when you got it stuck in your pubic hair?” Draco challenged.

 

“That wasn’t me, that was Blaise.” Max grinned. “It was just my cum that got stuck there.”

 

“I had to scrub that gunk off.” Blaise complained.

 

“Why would I willingly put myself through that?” Draco demanded.

 

“Can’t you see that it brings us closer together?” Blaise asked.

 

“How does rolling around in each other’s fluids make us closer together?”

 

“You’re scent marking yourself with all of our fluids.” Max offered.

 

“It shows that you don’t care about what you’re lying in, that you’d rather stay in our arms, cuddled together. It shows love.” Nasta said as he came back up the stairs and threw a damp washcloth to Blaise, who had tucked a sleeping Leolin back into his bassinet. “It is almost three in the morning now because of this fuckery. We could all be sleeping, instead it’s going to be more like half three before we get to sleep and we’ll need to be up for six tomorrow with the children. Harry is exhausted; I’m fucking exhausted and I don’t doubt we all are. The only thing we can do is ban sex; we can’t survive on two hours of sleep a night.”

 

Nasta let that announcement sink in as he took a second damp washcloth to clean up a softly snuffling Harry, who groaned and wriggled sleepily in Max’s arms, the movements waking him up despite how gentle Nasta was.

 

“Stop it.” Harry moaned trying to move away from Nasta, not remembering that he was in Max’s arms.

 

“I’m sorry Cariad. Draco won’t let you back in the bed while you’ve got this mess on you.”

 

“Tired.” Harry whined.

 

“I know you’re tired. Just a little more.” Nasta encouraged as he made sure he got every spot on Harry’s body.

 

Harry shivered and whined more, Max rubbed his arms and legs to try and warm him up a bit.

 

“Put him in bed.” Nasta ordered and Max did just that, setting Harry straight into the bed and covered him over.

 

Harry wriggled and writhed uncomfortably until Blaise threw his washcloth at Draco and climbed in with him, sharing body heat, but they both still shivered at the cool sheets until they settled down.

 

“We don’t really have to stop having sex do we?” Max asked almost desperately as he gave his body a cursory wipe down with the damp cloth that Nasta had handed him.

 

“I don’t see any other way.” Nasta shrugged.

 

“We can just use condoms and we can get Draco a penis beaker.”

 

“A what?” Harry laughed from the bed, picking his head up curiously to look at his three, still standing lovers.

 

Max shrugged. “It’s a container of water kept on the bedside table, usually a glass or a…well a beaker.” Max explained. “When Draco’s done he can just pull off his condom and dip himself in the water to wash himself.”

 

There was silence and Max ducked his head, grinning. Harry was the first to laugh, despite how tired he was and Blaise joined him.

 

“A posh gentleman’s wash.” Blaise sniggered.

 

That set Max off and he laughed hard. Harry rolled onto his back and gave Blaise a look and they both laughed harder.

 

“It’s not funny, that’s even more disgusting!” Draco actually shuddered at the thought.

 

“Just go to bed, please. It’s getting close to four in the morning now.” Nasta told them.

 

“I am in bed; I want to watch Draco use his penis beaker.” Harry said as he rolled over Blaise and picked up the glass of water that was kept there.

 

“I drink from that!” Max denied. “I don’t want to drink Draco’s penis water.”

 

“You give him oral sex all the time.” Blaise pointed out.

 

“That’s different! I’m not drinking penis water.” Max said stubbornly.

 

“You won’t have to; I’m not putting my penis in that.” Draco huffed affronted.

 

Harry chuckled and Blaise joined him, they almost spilt the water on the new sheets. Nasta darted forward and took the glass from Harry and set it back on the bedside table lest Draco force them to change the sheets yet again.

 

“Right, we’re all clean, we’re all tired. Can we please get some sleep now; we have two hours at most to sleep before we have to be up again.” Nasta was starting to look and sound angry, so they all agreed quickly before their more patient and level headed lover could really lose his temper with them, the last thing anyone wanted was a punishment.

 

Harry turned to cuddle into Blaise and Max slipped in behind him and Harry just melted into the warmth of him. Max was always hot and Harry shoved himself back into Max’s chest and belly, curling up and forcing Blaise to shift over to press against his front to keep him warmer.

The bed dipped and a flash of blond over Blaise’s shoulder informed Harry that Draco had joined them. Harry waited for Nasta to join, but the bed didn’t dip again and Harry picked his head up, despite how tired he was, to look for him.

 

“What’s wrong?” Harry mumbled as he saw Nasta bending to pick something up.

 

His oldest lover held up the still damp and used wash cloths and moved to take them down into the bathroom.

 

“Leave them Nasta. You need sleep too. Please just come to bed. Please.” Harry begged. “If you go down the stairs I’ll get up and follow you and I’m going to be grumpy enough tomorrow with the little sleep I’m going to get, don’t make it worse by prolonging it.” He added when it looked like Nasta was going to argue.

 

“I’ll just take a min…”

 

“Get in this damn bed now or I’ll tie you to it!” Harry hissed.

 

Nasta smiled and dropped the damp flannels back to the floor and moved over to the bed and climbed in behind Max, shifting his naked body right up against the equally naked body of Max.

 

“Ooo, you keep doing that and we’ll be making more mess.” Max murmured sleepily, but his heart wasn’t truly in the statement.

 

Nasta sighed and nuzzled into Max’s head, Harry’s hand slipped over Max’s hip and touched Nasta’s lower belly and Nasta held that small hand gently as he made himself warm in the clean sheets. It was almost four in the morning and they’d all be awake at six, they were never going to survive a full day tomorrow on a mere two hours’ sleep. He already knew that, all for the sake of clean sheets and cleaning off a few wet spots.

He sighed and settled down further as he listened to the four other’s in the bed shift, murmur or sigh in their sleep, their breaths evened out as they slipped deeper into their dreams.

He’d have to break Draco of his compulsive cleaning disorder. They could have been asleep by two if Draco hadn’t insisted they all get up, change the sheets and clean up themselves and the arguments about doing it hadn’t helped them get into bed any sooner either.

Closing his eyes and slipping his right arm under Max’s neck, touching Harry’s complete and utter mess of hair, he couldn’t help but think that Max’s idea had been the best, the next time they found themselves having sex this late at night, they’d fuck Draco twice as hard and twice as often so that he’d fall right off to sleep with no argument about wet spots on the sheets or anyone of them not cleaning off afterwards. He didn’t want to be kept awake after every love making session they had just to clean up when he saw no point to it and he wanted no more talks of penis beakers either. After a good, hard night of sex all he wanted was to sleep for several hours, cwtched up with his lovers in the bed with him, was that really too much to ask for?

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: My Facebookers know how this plot idea came to me and I want them to know that I’m still laughing about it several hours later.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this little scene. I’m on the last chapter of The Tribulation of the Blue Moon and I should be updating in the next few days. Then I’ll be back on The Rise of the Drackens, I’m expecting chapter seventy-eight to be updated in five or six days hopefully, but until then, enjoy this little scene and I’ll be seeing you lovelies very soon,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	33. Christmas Chaos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is a birthday chapter for Erin. Happy Birthday lovelie. I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope you’ve enjoyed your day.
> 
> This chapter is set in December of 2002.
> 
> Braiden – 5 years, 4 months  
> Quints – 4 years, 11 months, 25 days (6 days until their birthday.)   
> E and A – 3 years, 11 months  
> Taren – 2 years, 10 months  
> Lai – 2 years, 2 months  
> Xabie – 10 months  
> Macie and Evie – 1 month

 

Harry swiped a hand over his brow and grimaced as his hand met sweaty skin. He had been at this for hours, but the pride he felt at accomplishing what he had set out to do was amazing.

Two of their three settees had been shrunk and put away safe until after Christmas; he had meticulously put a pile of presents every few feet apart. One pile for every one of his thirteen children, though Macie and Evie were only a month old and wouldn’t be doing much unwrapping.

Then their little Xabiere was only ten months old, but he was such an energetic child that he would give it his best shot at unwrapping his gifts himself.

He made sure that everything was perfect, he made sure that all of the presents had been brought down from upstairs and that every tag on the gift was for the child whose pile it was in. Not that he expected his children to read the tags, but he knew which presents were from whom so he could shout out to them if need be.

He nodded to himself and breathed easy. He’d only given birth a month ago, he needed to take it easy, as Nasta kept telling him, but he just wanted this done and dealt with, it was two in the morning and it had taken him forever to settle the kids down, they were so excited for Santa’s visit that he’d thought he’d need a few drops of sleeping potion to calm them down and get them off to sleep.

He went into the dining room, where Blaise and Draco were just putting the finishing touches to the table. It looked perfect, the children’s end matched where he and his mates would sit, they had clear beakers that matched the crystal wineglasses and all the plates and bowls were charmed unbreakable, just in case. There were three highchairs around the table that Draco had bought to match their dining room chairs. All hard wood with padded seats.

Harry made sure that Taren and Lai had booster seats strapped securely to the chairs at the right height for them.

 

“Is everything to your liking?” Blaise asked him.

 

Harry nodded. “It looks perfect.” He said with a smile. “I am worried that Leolin wants to try sitting without his booster seat though, what if he falls?”

 

“Don’t worry.” Draco reassured him pulling him into a hug. “If he falls, then he falls. But I think he’s ready. If he thinks his booster seat is embarrassing then it’s going to make him feel worse about himself to force him to sit in it, especially when we’re going to be taking photos. He just wants to be like his brothers.”

 

Harry sighed and gave in. He’d keep an eye on Leolin tomorrow; he wouldn’t have his little boy fall.

 

“The kitchen is clean all ready for tomorrow, are you done?” Max asked as he came into the dining room, his hands pruned and a little sore looking from all the cleaning and scrubbing he’d done.

 

“We’re done.” Blaise told him.

 

“The living room is ready too.” Harry said even as he moved forward to take Max’s hands in his own. He kissed each fingertip gently before laying a kiss to the palms of his hands.

 

“I’ve finished all the food prep for tomorrow too.”

 

“Where is Nasta?” Draco asked.

 

“Macie and Evie woke up for a bottle. He should be done soon.”

 

“I think it’s time to get to bed, you know Calix will wake the house up at four in the morning.” Harry said smothering a yawn.

 

They crawled into bed, Nasta joining them after feeding and burping their month old twins and changing Xabiere, who had woken just as he was finishing the feeds because he was wet.

He crawled into the bed with them and wrapped his arms around the nearest body to pull into his own. It happened to be Max, who grunted and shifted himself to fit better in Nasta’s arms. Harry was almost as excited as his children had been that evening as he tried to settle them down, he’d never show it to his children how much them being so happy at Christmas made him so tearful.

He loved to see them so excited, so happy; none of them left out, unlike his own childhood memories of Christmas. He had never been so happy at Christmas until he had found and made his own family.

It was twenty minutes to five in the morning when someone clambered onto their bed and bounced on them.

 

“Wake up Mummy! It’s Christmas! Santa’s been! Santa’s been!” Calix cried out happily.

 

Draco grabbed him and pulled him down onto the bed.

 

“It’s too early Calix, go to sleep.”

 

“No!” Calix wailed, squirming in Draco’s grasp. “It’s Christmas Daddy Draco! _CHRISTMAS_!”

 

“It’ll still be Christmas in another few hours.” Blaise replied.

 

“But it’s Christmas _now_!” He whined.

 

They gave up when Braiden came barrelling into their room and joined Calix on the bed, bouncing excitedly, Farren right behind him and their second oldest was now very big and very heavy and having him bouncing on your ribs was not pleasant.

 

“Okay, I’m up.” Max groaned. “Farren love, stop that or you’ll cave in my rib cage.”

 

Farren just laughed loudly and did it all the more. Max sat up and ticked him mercilessly, getting him onto his back and tickling him until he was writhing around their bed helplessly, tears streaming down his face. That was when Braiden and Calix joined in and a war bellow from the door saw Regan diving into help his brothers wrangle their playful Dad, which ended with Max on his back, on the floor, a pile of boys on top of him and one little girl standing over them, hands on little hips, frowning.

 

“Get up, I want my breakfast!” Tegan huffed.

 

“Daddy Max started it Tegan!” Braiden insisted, sitting up with red flushed cheeks.

 

Tegan gave the sister look to Braiden before turning to hug Harry and kissing his mouth. “Morning Mummy.”

 

“Morning Tegan, sweetheart.” Harry smiled, pulling her up onto the bed.

 

“Lay-Lay and Tar are awake, I heared them talking.”

 

“Heard them talking.” Nasta corrected gently.

 

Tegan nodded her head, hair bouncing. Blaise got up to go and get the two trouble makers, their identical twins preceded him back into the room, their hair was stuck up at odd angles and Draco groaned in despair.

 

“You can get them ready until your heart’s content, but don’t overdo it today.” Harry warned him.

 

“They need to look perfect today.” Draco said stubbornly.

 

“And how long do you think they’ll stay that way?” Harry demanded. “Five minutes into the chaos? Ten maybe.”

 

Draco groaned. “Fine, but I’ll fix them up afterward and I will get photos.”

 

Harry nodded and he forced himself up and he changed into the smart dress robes that Draco had laid out for him before taking charge of his children and leading them back down the hallway to get into the clothes they’d put out for Christmas Day. Braiden rushed off, knowing how to dress himself, Tegan took charge of Calix and Regan, Farren jogging behind them leaving Harry to wrestle his wild twins into their clothes.

Once done he made them swear not to ruin them for at least an hour before he got Leolin, Lai and Taren up, changed their nappies and got them dressed in their outfits for the day, he did the same for Xabiere, his little dress robes looking so cute and sweet on him that Harry cooed before he heard a storm of little feet and lots of giggling. His children were far too excited and they’d be vibrating all through breakfast with the urge and desire to rip into their presents.

He heard Max gathering them up and taking them down the stairs for breakfast, the living room door was firmly closed to prying little eyes that would want a sneak peak.

He snatched up his youngest twins and dressed them comfortably, but smartly before he headed down the stairs, Nasta there to help him as he got Taren and Lai to go down the stairs on their bottoms as his identical twins went down slowly, holding onto the bannister rungs tightly. He’d have no accidents today of all days.

Breakfast was loud, chaotic and messy, but Draco was on hand and had put them all in bibs, much to their annoyance and protest, but their Daddy Draco insisted and they wanted presents, so they gave in.

Nasta slipped away quickly and quietly to set the living room up, plugging in the lights and setting up the camcorder that would be filming the carnage that was about to take place.

Harry couldn’t keep his knee still as it bounced vigorously under the table where he was feeding Xabiere his breakfast.

 

“I’m done!” Farren called out. “Can I go and see, please?”

 

“No, you wait for your brothers and sisters please Farren.” Harry said firmly.

 

Farren was happily urging his siblings to eat faster, even as Max whisked away his bowl and spoon and his finished beaker of milk to wash them.

 

“All done!” Lai exclaimed happily, giggling joyously. “Presents now Mummy?”

 

Harry looked around at the empty bowls and beakers before he looked to Blaise and winked.

 

“Just let me take Macie, Evie and Xabie into the room first and get them settled, they’re too young to open their own presents at the moment, so we’ll do theirs after, okay?”

 

His children whined and pouted and urged him to hurry as he picked up the three babies and carried them into the living room, kicking the door closed as he went. He grinned widely at the camera which was pinned to the door at the moment to record the kids’ reactions to the living room.

 

“They’re so wound up.” He laughed as he settled Xabiere into a walker which was set up high so that his feet couldn’t touch the ground and settled Macie and Evie into bouncers.

 

He sat by them in the perfect spot to watch the excitement unfold. It didn’t take long to hear a cheer come from the kitchen and the rushing of little feet. Draco made them stop at the door and Harry could almost hear the buzzing of the excitement, like a thousand angry bees.

The door opened and their kids poured in, only to stop at the sight of so many presents.

 

“Where’s mine Mummy?” Calix asked, bouncing on his toes as he looked around the room with wide eyes.

 

“This pile by here is yours Calix. Tegan, yours is there, Regan, you’re next to her. Braiden, you’re by the tree, Farren, you’re opposite him by here. Leolin sweetheart, you’re here by me, Taren, you’re by Daddy Blaise’s feet, Lai, your pile is next to him.”

 

“Is this one mine?” His oldest identical twin called out excitedly.

 

“Yes love.”

 

“So this one is mine?” The other asked.

 

Harry nodded. Once all of his children were sat down at the right piles of presents and Max had shut the living room door and sat down by their twins to help them if they needed it, Nasta aimed the camcorder at everyone.

 

“Happy Christmas kids.” He said with an indulging smile. “Have at it.”

 

Then it was just the sound of tearing paper, the excited squeals as their children unwrapped the presents they’d begged Santa to get them, the giggles and the hum of little voices as they showed each other what they’d gotten before diving in and opening more presents.

Harry helped Leolin, who needed it even though his presents had less sticky tape on them than any other child, not that Harry would tell him that, but Harry still helped and Max had already been tasked into unwrapping presents from boxes by their stubborn twins, who were always different and still had half their presents wrapped even as they pushed boxes at Max for him to open so that they could play with that was inside.

The colourful paper stayed on the floor for a while as the kids revelled in their new toys and games and Harry helped Xabiere open his few gifts, his ten month old son clapping his hands at the paper ripping and delighted with his range of teether toys and teddies.

It was eleven in the morning before Max retreated back to the kitchen to get Christmas dinner started and Nasta stepped out from behind the camcorder for the first time to clear a floor space for the kids to play in by grabbing the black bags that had been put at hand ready to get rid of the torn paper and plastic packaging.

Blaise was trying to accurately put stickers onto a toy car garage for Calix and Draco had been roped into playing dolls with Tegan, whose incredibly pretty dress made her look much older than she was, Harry hadn’t liked the dress, but Tegan had and he was a slave to the whims of his children.

Harry helped his younger children with their toys, stopped fights before they happened by pulling toys from little grasping hands and of course when his little Lai came and sat on his lap, Harry wrapped his arms around his younger two year old and held his sweet child, who was tugging around a block of wood with metal loops and swirls on it with little coloured beads that had to be moved, by hand, from one side of the block to another.

Harry held Lai as he watched his older children playing and laughing and enjoying themselves and he couldn’t keep the smile from his face as he watched them having a happy, enjoyable day. He loved it. Braiden absolutely loved his toy wand, Farren was grinning over the pirate ship he’d really, really wanted and they’d had to travel halfway across the world to get him and Leolin had already opened his new box of crayons and was drawing on the huge pad of paper he’d gotten.

Blaise came to him and hunched down to give him a kiss, or Harry thought it was going to be a simple kiss, but it turned into a passionate, snog session with a lot of tongue and uncontrollable little noises in the back of throats.

Lai laughed happily from between them, clapping little hands as they broke apart, both a bit breathless and a bit flushed. They grinned at one another like naughty school boys and Blaise went off to sort out their twins, who had predictably gone wild and were now wrestling each other for what looked like a wooden train set that had been gifted to Farren.

 

“Hey! Knock it off the both of you.” Nasta broke them apart and dragged one to the other end of the room. “You two are like animals.”

 

“Tiger!” Their oldest twin giggled, curling hands to make claws and roaring so cutely Harry had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing.

 

“Lion!” The other one shouted, doing the same and growling, which sounded more like puppy mewling.

 

Harry clenched his hands into fists and bit his lip to keep from cooing at how cute they were. He turned away and laughed, he felt their eyes turn to him, but let them think he was laughing at Lai, who was still in his lap, playing with beads.

At two in the afternoon, Harry had fed Macie and Evie and was just cleaning up from Xabiere’s meal when Max started laying the table with bowls half filled with vegetable soup.

 

“Can you call everyone for me Harry, please?” He asked.

 

“Of course love.”

 

Harry kissed Max hard before walking into the living room and clapping his hands.

 

“Come on you lot, Daddy Max has finished dinner, you can come back and play after you’ve eaten.”

 

They were led into the formal dining room and they helped get their children settled, Max was handing out warm bread rolls and encouraged their children to start eating, they didn’t worry much about anyone starting first, they would finish near enough all together anyway.

The kids chatted excitedly all through dinner about the presents and about how happy they were and how they’d gotten everything they wanted and that made Harry breathe a bit easier, he finished his dinner and then held Max’s hand under the table as they watched and talked softly as the kids worked themselves up and wore themselves out.

Pudding was a variety of different dishes; Harry had found out several years ago that he didn’t like Christmas pudding, so he had Christmas cake instead while his children gorged on ice creams shaped like snowmen.

 

“Mummy, I’m done, can I go and play?” Farren asked.

 

Harry looked up and noticed that all of his children were either done or just playing with their food by now and he smiled.

 

“Go on then.” He said and his kids cheered and rushed off. He chuckled as he helped Lai and Taren down from their booster seats. Leolin hadn’t fallen from his chair, but he had sat up on his knees to be on a level with his siblings, though there was no catching up with Farren, even Braiden couldn’t keep up with Farren.

 

Harry sent Blaise and Max to go and keep an eye on the kids, taking Macie, Evie and Xabie with them as he, Nasta and Draco sorted out the dishes and the remaining mess.

It didn’t take long and with the kids safely in the living room, they used spells to wash and clean away the plates and dishes. Draco made tea and took it into the living room, having drank a glass of wine too many with dinner, all of them had really, so tea was the best option at the moment, at least until the kids were in bed a little later.

Harry curled up on the remaining settee in the living room and opened the tin of ginger newt biscuits he had been sent by Professor McGonagall.

Sitting there on the settee, his thirteen children around him, his four mates and lovers cuddled up on the settee with him, nicking his biscuits as they drank their tea and watched the kids playing and having the time of their lives. They had nothing to do and nowhere to go, they stayed there for hours just watching and laughing and talking together. Draco did interrupt them though to take photos and of course half the kids started posing and giggling, the other half ran off trying to hide, but they got one really, really nice family photo of all of them all dressed up and Draco swore he would frame it for them. Harry swallowed back the tears at that, his post pregnancy hormones still playing up.

Leolin got tired easily however and he slipped onto the settee and cuddled up to Blaise with a little yawn, one of his new soft dolls in hand half an hour later.

Harry got Lai on his lap and Taren on the settee between him and Max, resting against him and they fell asleep quickly, completely exhausted now that it was coming up to seven in the evening. Max took them up to bed as Blaise carried Leolin. Half the kids were exhausted, the other half were over excited, but he wouldn’t force them to bed on this day of all days, the younger kids had fallen asleep themselves and it was only Leolin he had been worried about wanting to stay awake like his older siblings, but he had drifted off on his own.

One by one they drifted off, Calix even fell asleep where he had been sat and Harry scooped him up and tucked him into his bed. When they were all asleep and in bed, they cleaned everything up, they put the toys back into piles of who they belonged to and it didn’t take long before they were yawning and dragging their feet to bed themselves, they’d had two or so hours sleep before they’d been woken up and they’d have no reprieve tomorrow as they’d be up early with Macie, Evie and Xabiere, though their older children would sleep in tomorrow after the excitement of today.

Harry crawled into bed and lay flat out, ignoring everything else; he couldn’t even be bothered to change. Someone stripped him and he smiled.

 

“Thank you.” He grunted out, muffled into his pillow.

 

“I think today was too much for you.” Nasta said worriedly.

 

A hand slipped under him to touch at the thin scar over his belly, it was slowly fading, but it still ached.

 

“It’s okay.” Harry said tiredly.

 

“We have the quintuplets fifth birthday in five days now.” Max groaned as he fell onto the bed in just a pair of boxer shorts.

 

“Don’t remind me.” Harry groaned dramatically.

 

“Just take it easy.” Nasta said worriedly.

 

“I will, just don’t fuss too much okay, you know I only get angry when you all fuss. I know my body, I know what I can do and if I feel like I’m doing too much, I will stop and take a break if I can, I’m nowhere near as bad as I was a few weeks ago, I’m glad Macie and Evie came early and didn’t hang on to term, I couldn’t imagine surviving Christmas with newborns and a fresh caesarean cut. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to manage all I did today, so in a way I’m glad Macie and Evie were born early, but please, no more babies for a while.”

 

“You didn’t have such a bad time this birthing, not like after Lai.” Max pointed out concernedly. “I think you might not get your wish this time Harry.”

 

Harry sighed and sagged into the bed. “Just try not to give me super sperm if I have a heat period next month, okay.”

 

“We’ll try.” Blaise said, just as worried.

 

“It’ll be fine.” Harry said trying to ease their fears. “If I fall pregnant again, I fall pregnant again and we’ll deal with it, but after that then I think I might need some recovery time. So maybe we’ll have longer between my heat cycles with the recovery time.”

 

“Let’s not deal with this right now, we have enough to deal with at the moment, let’s just get some sleep.” Nasta said softly, looking pointedly into the two bassinets by their bedside holding their month old twins.

 

Harry nodded and settled down, letting his mates cuddle in around him and cover him over. It took mere minutes before exhaustion washed over him and he fell deeply asleep, getting in as much as he could before he had to wake up for Boxing Day and his little hellions ran riot with their new toys. He gave it four hours before a new toy got broken and a tearful child came to him or one of their Daddies to fix it for them. That’s what he got for all the chaos of Christmas.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’ve had to do Christmas in the Scaled Bits this year as the main fic is in September, so I decided to do a future bit to show the chaos the guys have to survive at Christmas, I hope you’ve all enjoyed it and that you’re all well and excited for Christmas if you celebrate it. We’re gearing up now for a full overhaul update of everything now in the next week. We have a Damaged Bodies update on Christmas Eve, another Scaled Bits chapter and a Lycanthrope Factory chapter for Christmas Day and the Rise of the Drackens update for the 27th of December, which was held back a few days due to the upsetting nature of the chapter, I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s Christmas with it, so it’ll be later than planned.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this and that you are taking care of yourselves, I’ll see you all in three days with a Damaged Bodies update,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	34. The Twelve Sighs of Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Lizzie, who has to work today of all days. I hope this makes you feel even a smidgen better when you come home and see it, lovelie.

The Twelve Sighs of Christmas

Harry smiled as he slipped the can of squirty cream into one of the trolleys. He and Max had come to do the Christmas shop. They needed two trolleys to fit everything they needed with the approved list of table wines from Nasta and all the treats for them and the kids as well as the amount of food they needed to feed themselves and their children. It was easy to hide a single can of cream in the bulging trolley he was pushing.

 

“Mummy’s being bad.” Tegan giggled from where she was sat in his trolley.

 

“Shh sweetheart, do you want some squirty cream too, for your Christmas cake and ice cream?” Harry offered, grinning at Max who looked at him with raised eyebrows before carrying on to get the milk, none the wiser to his plan.

 

Tegan nodded, her jet black hair bouncing happily with her hair. Harry picked up the can that wasn’t for adults and slipped it into the trolley, making a show of hiding it so Tegan thought they just weren’t allowed to have this type of cream rather than thinking that her Mummy was planning on being naughty with the adult squirty brandy cream later when she was fast asleep in bed.

 

“Is Santa here Mama?” His little, sweet Lai asked from the seat beside Tegan.

 

“Don’t be silly Lay-Lay.” Tegan admonished as only a big sister could. “Santa’s in the North Pole with his elves and raydeer.”

 

“Reindeer, Tegan love.” Harry corrected softly.

 

“Yes, but he sends his _helpers_ to see the little children.” Tegan finished with a knowing nod.

 

“But he still knows what you want.” Harry assured. “The helpers remember everything you want and tell him and if you’ve been good, he’ll bring it to you for Christmas Day.”

 

Harry caught up to Max, who had Calix and Taren with him.

 

“What were you talking about?” Max asked him with a raised eyebrow. Maybe he did suspect something after all.

 

“Santa’s helpers, Daddy Max.” Tegan told him. “Lay-Lay thought the _real_ Santa came to meet the little children.”

 

“He do!” Taren said with a frown.

 

“No Tar! Santa’s helpers come to see the kids.” Calix corrected as he tried to look at everything at once, wanting nothing more than to be on the ground and exploring everything.

 

“Santa stays in the North Pole.” Tegan agreed.

 

“I want out!” Calix whined.

 

“It’s too busy here Calix.” Max told him firmly. “We warned you before we came out that if you wanted to come shopping with us that you’d have to stay in the trolley.”

 

Calix pouted and nodded, but he wanted to be everywhere, he wanted to touch everything, it was a nightmare trying to bring him to the supermarket, though it wasn’t too bad when he was confined to the trolley seat.

 

“What do we need now?” Harry asked even as he glared at a woman who tried to shove his trolley, which had two children in it, out of her way. “Excuse me!” He shouted at her angrily. “Try some common courtesy and learn some manners! There is a five and a three year old in this trolley!”

 

Max moved over as much as he could and pulled Harry and his trolley over, though he glared at the woman too, before perusing the A4 sheet of paper with their list of shopping, pencil in hand.

 

“We still need to buy the meat and the frozen things.” Max said as he made his way over to the delicatessen counters.

 

Harry distracted the kids with the help of one of the stressed looking workers behind the counter, who let his children try some of the cheeses as Max instructed the butcher on what meats he wanted and how he wanted them cut.

They finished the shopping and got the kids and the shopping loaded up into the car and drove home, where they had help unloading everything as a gaggle of kids ran about their feet in excitement. Though a six year old Braiden attacked his legs and held on.

Harry bent to kiss his forehead gently before swinging him up and setting him on his hip as he wrangled the younger children into the house and out of the snow covered front garden, they had no wellies, no hats, no mittens, not even a coat on and he didn’t want them sick for Christmas.

Their front room was a riot of colour and decorations as Draco and Blaise had taken all of the children shopping in November to buy decorations and then found it impossible to say no to any of the decorations the kids wanted. The result was very festive and left them with barely an inch of space left for anything. The kids absolutely loved it.

 

“Oh I can’t wait until this is all over!” Max groaned theatrically and collapsed, very dramatically, on the kitchen table, sliding down it until he was sitting on the floor.

 

Harry smirked and Blaise chuckled a bit. He thought of the can of cream he’d bought and he made sure he kept the bag he’d packed it into was safe with him. He’d cast a long lasting cooling charm on it and snuck it upstairs and into the bedside table. He was going to have some fun tonight.

 

“It’ll all be over in a week.” Draco soothed Max.

 

“Until then, it’s all about the kids.” Harry reminded them.

 

“We know.” Blaise rolled his eyes as he helped put everything away, it was a good thing their kitchen was so big.

 

Later that night as Harry was reading his older children a story, settling them down enough to get them to sleep, his mind wandered to the can of cream in his bedside draw. He grinned before going back to the story as his children drifted off to sleep one by one against him and one another. Soon, he’d play with his mates soon.

It took a further hour before the house was still and silent and Harry told his mates that he was going to go up to bed, they promised to be up soon, once they’d locked up the house and made sure everything was in order.

He rushed up to the bedroom and stripped himself, he shivered a little in the cold, but he checked on his tiny eight month old and covered the solid crib with a silencing bubble so that he could hear his child, but the sleeping beauty wouldn’t be able to hear him. Little Momo was still so tiny, though when he compared pictures, Momo looked almost normal next to Leolin, but it was hard to think of his almost six year old son as being even smaller than Momo was now and when he thought why Momo was so small…he shuddered softly.

Thinking of his eighth clutch always brought a tear to his eye and he swallowed thickly as he couldn’t help but think that there should be two more cribs beside the lone one that was by his bedside, but their Cassie and their Jaime hadn’t survived. Jamie had been dead at birth, his tiny body completely devoid of life and very underdeveloped, he hadn’t been able to survive outside of the sac. Their little Cassie had fought for every breath she took, but she had died hours later, her fragile, underdeveloped organs giving in. Only Momo had done the impossible, against all the odds, and survived with the help of several senior, very determined Healers and Harry readily admitted that he was severely overprotective of his youngest child because of it, proof enough was that Momo was still sleeping by his bedside at eight months old, he hadn’t even used the fact that Momo was rolling over now and was too old for a bassinet to move his baby into the nursery, instead he had removed the bassinet and got a solid crib in its place, just so that Momo could sleep beside them still, but he just couldn’t let go, not yet.

Harry kissed Momo gently and stepped back, he breathed deeply and calmly as the therapist had told him to do and he let go of all of his upset and bad feelings over the death of two of his newborns. He knew that there had been nothing he could have done for them, he’d done his all to keep them alive, but they had just been born far too soon and brutally speaking, he shouldn’t even have Momo, but he did and he was going to be thankful that he had the one baby he did, he wasn’t going to play the what if game, it would only hurt and torture himself more, he did give birth to three babies and he should still have had three babies, but he didn’t and there was nothing he could do about that, so he let it go as his therapist had encouraged him to. He was thankful every single day that Momo was alive, that his little baby was growing stronger and healthier day by day, was developing normally for a premature baby and was a very happy, bright little baby, he couldn’t really wish for more than that and he wasn’t going to, he wished with the deepest part of his heart that Jamie and Cassie had lived too, but he wouldn’t wish for it now if it meant it badly affected or detrimented the health of Momo, who he loved so very much, and he felt awful for feeling that way, but his therapist was slowly helping him overcome those thoughts and feelings, which was for the best really.

He pushed away all the bad, negative thoughts and took the can of cream out of the draw and instead forced himself to imagine what he was going to do with it on his mates, he fantasied about it and got himself smiling and thinking naughty thoughts. He wouldn’t ruin Christmas with thoughts on his two buried children. His therapist had gotten him to a stage where he could do this, where he could think of Cassie and Jamie without breaking down in hysterical tears like he’d done in the beginning, but he was going off topic yet again.

He popped the lid on the can; it was still cold to the touch. He broke the seal and squirted some out onto his finger. He tasted it and grimaced at the strong taste, but he didn’t care. He had more plans for this than just the taste of it. The slogan on the festive red can had been what caught his eye, right at the bottom of the can in a jaunty innuendo were the words ‘Tis the season to be squirty’ oh he planned on it.

 

He rolled around to get warm and get his skin used to the cool sheets as he waited for his mates, he’d put the cream under a pillow. Blaise was the first one to come up and Harry grinned naughtily at him when he stopped in the doorway to look at him.

 

“Hello love, would you like to play?” Harry asked huskily.

 

Blaise licked his lips, his pupils blown and a grin spread over his mouth, he pushed the door shut and walked to the bed.

 

“I’d love to play.” He growled as he crawled onto the bed and covered him, kissing him breathless before they broke apart to stare at one another. “If I’d known you were up here all alone and naked and cold I would have come up sooner to warm you up, Diletto.”

 

“Ti amo.” Harry grinned at him and Blaise’s eyes flash with lust and love.

 

“Ti amo, mio piccolo amante.”

 

“I have a special surprise for you.” Harry said with his best lusty voice.

 

“Oh?” Blaise questioned as he rolled his groin into Harry’s to let him feel what was happening. Harry smiled wider.

 

Harry reached under the pillow and pulled out the squirty cream and wiggled his eyebrows.

 

“Brandy cream?” Blaise questioned.

 

Harry grinned as he realised Blaise hadn’t seen squirty cream before. They did have a penchant to buy pouring cream on occasion and sometimes Max whipped up double cream as a special treat, but he’d had no idea that Blaise didn’t know what squirty cream was.

He took it from Blaise and popped the top, he pressed the button and placed a swirl of brandy flavoured cream on his own finger and held it up to Blaise with a wicked grin.

Blaise sucked on his finger sensually and Harry let out a soft sigh at the feeling. His mate sat up then, straddling his waist and he yanked off his clothes quickly and with a lot of cursing in French when he had to stand up to get his belt and trousers off.

He dropped back down, being wary of Harry’s hips before they started snogging furiously, they both tasted of brandy.

That was how Max found them ten minutes later.

 

“Holy shit!” He exclaimed, loudly.

 

“Get over here and shut the door, the kids will hear you.” Harry broke apart to tell him breathlessly.

 

Before Max could do so, Nasta and Draco showed up ready to defend their family and they visibly reacted to what they saw. Harry turned away from them and focused back on Blaise as he started biting and leaving bites along his neck.

 

“I have a strange feeling of déjà vu; you haven’t put up that sticking ward again have you?” Nasta asked.

 

Harry blinked confusedly for a moment before he grinned as the memory came to him.

 

“No, please come and join us, I want you all tonight.” Harry said. “I have a surprise.”

 

“Oh boy, I have the feeling we’re either going to really like this, or we won’t.” Max said as he stepped closer.

 

“You’ll like it.” Blaise grinned.

 

“Are you in on this surprise too?” Nasta asked as he pulled his jumper over his head.

 

“No. Harry surprised me too. Though it seems he’s hungry.”

 

Max stopped in mid motion. “Did I not serve you enough at dinner? I can get you a snack if you want.”

 

Harry smiled softly at him. “I love you, but there’s no need. I brought my snack up with me.”

 

Harry groped for the can of cream and shook it at them with a smile.

 

“Is that…? Are you going to…?” Max floundered.

 

“Oh yes, I’m going to eat this off of your gorgeous bodies.” Harry declared with a grin.

 

He watched their reactions, Max and Nasta’s expressions clouded with lust, but Draco had a confused look on his face.

 

“What is it?” He asked.

 

“It’s cream Draco.”

 

“Cream will be so messy unless you whip it.”

 

“Come here.”

 

Harry pulled Draco to him and he and Blaise stripped him quickly.

 

“Fuck it’s cold.” Draco complained, his skin covered in small goosebumps as he shivered.

 

“Let us warm you up.”

 

Harry shook the can of cream and then drew a line over Draco’s nipple with it, which made Draco jump.

 

“That’s even colder.” He hissed.

 

Harry bent his head and lapped up the cream, using his mouth and tongue excessively, stopping at Draco’s pale pink nipple and sucking on it.

Draco moaned, then jumped under his mouth and he looked sideways to see that Blaise had put a line on Draco’s inner thigh and was now licking it back off.

 

“I hope you bought two of these things.” Max said with a predatory grin. “This could last all night.”

 

He snatched the can from Blaise and put a swirl of cream on his hip bone before bending to licking back off. If Blaise’s gasped groan was any indication, Max had bitten him too.

 

“I think cream makes bad lube.” Harry said consideringly. “But I’m sure it won’t hurt for one night, then it’s brandy cream, that might sting a bit if one of us splits.”

 

“Try it on me first.” Nasta said firmly as he took the can from Max and put a blob on their biggest mate’s stomach, before getting on his knees and sucking it off, before using it again to draw a line right down and over Max’s groin.

 

Max groaned at how cold it was on his private parts, at least until Nasta’s warm mouth swallowed him down and then he groaned louder for a whole different reason.

Harry was sure they’d used half the can before they even got around to thinking of sex, but when they got around to it, Nasta was very happy to allow his body to be used as practice to see if the squirty cream made good lubricant. It really, really didn’t and Max was almost howling as it irritated his penis and he had to stop to wipe it off.

 

“Oh fuck, that was a _bad_ idea.” He groaned.

 

Blaise couldn’t stop laughing.

 

“I don’t think we’ll be trying that again.” Harry said with a giggle as he finished cleaning Nasta with his tongue.

 

“I say we give up for the night and try again. My cock is raw.” Max complained.

 

“Just because your cock is raw doesn’t mean ours are.” Draco pointed out, stroking his still hard cock.

 

Harry giggled and slipped onto Draco’s lap while Blaise slipped up behind him.

 

“You planned this!” Max grumbled as he sat back against the pillows with Nasta, still holding himself in his hand.

 

“We had no idea that this would happen.” Harry pointed out. “I bought that stuff today on a whim when I saw it and thought naughty things. I certainly didn’t think it would burn that much and I didn’t plan it.”

 

“Less talking, more fun.” Blaise grunted as he flicked the top off of the real lube and started preparing him.

 

“Oh.” Harry sighed happily, melting back into the feelings and sensations.

 

Blaise was very impatient as he thrust his fingers into him hard, fast and rough, but all Harry did was moan louder, shifting his hips on Blaise’s hand as much as he could while on Draco’s lap with those large, soft, pale hands on his waist, holding him still.

It didn’t take long before Blaise completely gave up on the preparations and slipped himself straight into him instead. Harry groaned deep in his throat and almost screamed when Draco joined Blaise inside of him, slowly, oh so fucking slowly. Torturously slow in his opinion.

Nasta made a move towards them, the look on his face serious and slightly angry and Harry understood, he pulled Nasta into a kiss and held his face between his hands, feeling the prickly stubble under his hands.

 

“They’re not hurting me, Nas. I love this so much, I love the feeling, you know I love this feeling, just sit back and enjoy the show.” He grinned naughtily.

 

Max pulled Nasta back and they cuddled up together and let the three of them move together. They soon found a rhythm, Draco pushed up into Harry, reclined on his arms to push his hips up while Harry ground down into Draco, circling his hips to take in all of Draco and then moving back to take in all of Blaise, who was holding him tight, pressed to his back and he was barely moving inside of him, but he didn’t need to, Blaise pressed against Draco, who nudged his prostate with nearly every movement.

His orgasm built inside him as he gripped Draco’s shoulders tightly, digging his thighs into Draco’s hips as he came to the tip peak of his pleasure and then fell over it with a silent scream of pleasure as he clenched tight around his mates, who followed him soon after.

 

“Fuck, I love you all. Merry Christmas.” Harry said with a happy sigh as Draco and Blaise pulled out of him gently and he was pulled away and into Max and Nasta’s arms. In fact all of them were between Max and Nasta.

 

“We’ll make this Christmas the best one ever.” Max promised.

 

“Every year we make it better than the last.” Harry said with a tired, sated smile.

 

“That’s because every year we have more amazing children to love and it’s another year that we’ve spent together.”

 

Harry smiled at that and he yawned, falling asleep happily and with a wide smile on his face and the ache he loved in his lower back. He’d grown to love Christmas, even if it was one of the biggest stresses in his life, if all he had to complain about these days was the chaos of Christmas with so many children to keep happy and healthy then he’d be a very happy man.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry bit his lip as he looked up at Nasta, who was very unimpressed, even with a pair of reindeer antlers stuck on his head.

 

“Why am I doing this?” He asked.

 

“Because I asked really nicely and then got naked as an incentive?” Harry grinned back innocently.

 

“Don’t try the innocent card with me, it doesn’t wash. Why antlers?”

 

“It’s Christmas.” Harry answered simply, his grin widening.

 

“Why me and not Max? He’d be well up for this.”

 

“Max has taken the kids to visit Granddad Myron and Granddad Richard for the afternoon. It’s only me and you here.”

 

“So I’m the only one stupid enough to let you dress me up as a reindeer.”

 

“Well…if we’re going to be technical, you aren’t exactly dressed now, are you love?”

 

Harry pointedly roved his eyes all over the gorgeous, pale skin of his oldest lover and a certain part of his body, which had already been aroused, throbbed and took much more notice as Harry’s eyes rested on a matching body part on Nasta.

 

“You look good in antlers.” Harry laughed.

 

Nasta came to him, his antlers bobbing as he climbed onto the bed, which made Harry stifle a small giggle.

Nasta kissed him hard and Harry cupped the back of his head, moving one hand up to pet the antlers, which made him laugh again.

 

“Stop laughing or I’m taking them off.”

 

“You can’t take them off, I want you like this and I’ll be sad.” Harry insisted, pulling him back into a kiss.

 

“You do know that only female reindeer keep their antlers through the winter, don’t you?” Nasta told him seriously.

 

Harry blinked, having not known that little tidbit, but he rallied quickly and moved out from under Nasta and touched a hand to his back.

 

“Then you had better stay on your hands and knees, love.” He teased as he draped himself over Nasta’s strong back, laying kisses over it.

 

“I thought you wanted me to love on you?” Nasta questioned.

 

“I did, but a real man doesn’t make the woman do all of the work, at least not unless she wants to, but then I wouldn’t know what goes on inside the bedroom with a woman outside of what information Caesar tortures me with.”

 

“Did you just call me a woman?!” Nasta demanded, moving as if to sit up and turn around, but Harry’s soft hand pressing against his back kept him where he was.

 

“We have already established that you are a female reindeer, so I’m going to be the male as I have no antlers.”

 

“That can easily be changed.” Nasta growled reaching a hand up to pull the antler headband off, but Harry stopped him.

 

“I want to love on you for once.” He said seriously. “It’s so rare that it’s just me and you and I’ve never had you where it was just us, let me love on you please.”

 

Nasta groaned and dropped his head to the mattress, almost losing his antlers to the pillow but Harry took it for acceptance and he grinned, picking up the lube and drizzling it over Nasta’s gorgeous bum and down between the two muscled cheeks.

 

“Merlin, a little warning next time. That’s cold.”

 

“Unfortunately you don’t make your own lubricant like a woman, so you have to have the fake, cold stuff from a bottle.” Harry said as he worked the lube with his fingers before pressing one into Nasta’s warm body.

 

“I’d rather have lube made from ice than ‘make my own lubricant’” Nasta declared even as he pushed back on Harry’s finger eagerly.

 

“It’s handy if you’re caught out and about with no lube though.” Harry said thoughtfully, a particular outing in mind when he had been much, much younger involving an alleyway and a furious, drunken romp against a dirty brick wall with Max.

 

“I’d rather be taken dry, I don’t know why but wet women were never high on my fantasies as a teenager. I suppose that was actually the first indication that I was gay, though I didn’t recognise it for what it really was.”

 

“Less talk about your earlier trysts with wet women and more moaning over my fingers inside your body.”

 

“I love your fingers inside me.” Nasta told him. “They’re smaller than the others and I can just relax into them and let you do all the stretching without worrying that Max’s giant fingers are going to tear me before I’m ready.”

 

“I love all of my dominants fingers for different reasons. Blaise’s are the smallest, but I get frustrated with my own as I can’t reach what I want to or stretch myself enough with them to feel the burn I love so much, but Blaise’s are just perfect and he has lovely long, slim fingers that hit my spot just right. Draco’s hands are so smooth it’s like being fingered by silk. I love that feeling and he’s so slow and attentive too, he makes me melt. Max’s fingers are so big and thick it’s like being properly fucked with just his fingers, he does it so well that he can get me to orgasm in just five minutes and you, you my lovely reindeer have such rough, calloused fingers that they scrape all along my inner walls, I shudder in pleasure, my body wracked with small tremors when you push your fingers into me nice and slow for me to feel every bump and rough patch of your hard working hands. You make my eyes roll into the back of my head if you finger me for longer than five minutes, I just can’t take the pleasure of it.”

 

“You always were a sweet talker.” Nasta teased.

 

Harry licked up his back and added a second finger to Nasta’s body, pressing in carefully, listening to Nasta sigh in pleasure. He loved that sound.

 

“I’m ready, please Harry. We only have a small amount of time before Max comes home with the kids.”

 

“I know, just let me take care of you though. You’re always so strong, my dominant mate, you never rest, you never take any time just for you, you’re the backbone of our family and I want to help you relax, drain away your stress and show you how very much I love and appreciate you and all that you do for us. I love you Nasta Tabrien Delericey.”

 

“I love you too, Harry James Potter, just please hurry up, my balls are throbbing and are already drawn up, if you tease for much longer then this will be a very short stolen moment and there will be no fucking involved.”

 

Harry laughed deeply and removed both of his fingers and reached for the lubricant again, squeezing a fair amount onto his hand before stroking it over himself a few times, if Nasta insisted on only a two finger preparation, then Harry would insist on more lube.

He pressed himself carefully and slowly into Nasta, who groaned, long and deep, just like Harry liked. He loved all sorts of sounds that his mates made in pleasure.

He kept things slow and careful for a few minutes, letting Nasta’s body stretch naturally to accommodate him and let the lube coat his insides before he picked up his pace and focused on the sounds Nasta was making and the small hints and signs he gave that Harry picked up on and reacted to almost on instinct. They had been lovers for so long now that he could read Nasta like a book and he could read Max, Draco and Blaise just as well. They were like well-thumbed volumes and he’d thumb through them again and again, even though he knew all of the words by heart. He loved them so dearly that the merest thought of anything happening to them or hurting them almost sent him into a panic.

 

“That’s it Cariad.” Nasta cried out as Harry pushed into him.

 

Harry took that as all the encouragement he needed as he slammed into Nasta and they both orgasmed together, Nasta almost goring him with his fuzz covered antlers as he threw his head back.

Harry collapsed onto his back laughing, but he was happy and sated and they stayed where they were for several long minutes, right up until Max opened the bedroom door, confusion on his face until he spotted them.

 

“I wondered where you two had gotten too; I should have known that this is what you’d do with a house to yourselves.” He teased, before he frowned. “Why are you wearing antlers?”

 

Harry just laughed and picked himself up tiredly.

 

“Sen wants you, Harry.” Max told him with a smile. “I suggest you clean up a bit before tending to our little eight year old, lest you want to answer some very awkward questions on why Mummy and Daddy Nasta are not wearing anything and confusion over why Daddy Nasta is dressed up like a reindeer.”

 

Harry laughed again and fell back onto the bed. “Tell Sen I’ll be there in a minute, Mummy has to take care of the reindeer first.”

 

Harry and Max laughed as Nasta scowled and snatched the headband off of his head and threw it at Max, Harry could hear his biggest mate’s laughter all the way down the hall.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry smiled as he sensed rather than saw little hands going for his freshly baked Christmas cookies.

 

“If you touch that I’m going to be cross.” He said sternly as he turned to face his two children, not even a hint of his previous smile showing. “That baking tray is still hot.”

 

“Only one Mummy, please.” Lai begged softly, giant blue eyes wide and imploring.

 

Harry folded his arms over his chest as Lai and Xabiere both stood there looking up at him with wide, wide begging eyes. He sighed and shook his head as he picked up two Christmas tree shaped cookies from the tray and gave them one apiece.

They both cheered and yelled out ‘We love you Mummy’ before scampering off as quickly as they’d come, munching on their cookies.

 

“You are so weak when it comes to the kids.” Max teased from the doorway.

 

“It’s those damn begging puppy eyes!” Harry insisted as he turned back to the counter and stamped out more star shaped cookies, placing them on a different baking tray ready to go into the oven when the cookies inside it were ready.

 

“You shouldn’t have taught them how to make those eyes then.” Max laughed as he wrapped his arms around Harry’s chest and nibbled at an ear.

 

“They look so cute though, until they turn those eyes on me and I can’t help but fall into their honeyed trap.”

 

“Speaking of honeyed traps, you know how turned on I get when I see you baking in my kitchen.” Max all but purred into his ear.

 

Harry chuckled. “Any one of our children could walk in here and see us; you’ll have to settle for staying hard.”

 

“I don’t want to.” Max all but pouted as he brushed himself against the back of Harry’s body.

 

Max played with Harry’s body even as he finished cutting out all of his Christmas shapes and moved around the kitchen baking and laying out sweet treats, it was when he started icing the cool cookies that Max took things to a new level as his hand found its way past the apron and into Harry’s trousers and boxers, rubbing him and making him stumble on his feet.

 

“Max!” He hissed. “The kids…”

 

“Can’t see through solid objects the last I knew.” He countered as he bumped his hips into Harry, who then bumped into the island counter he was working at, the kitchen door that led to the passage way, the door that led to the dining room and the back door, the only ways into the kitchen, were all placed so that anyone walking into the kitchen couldn’t see behind the island counter and Harry shuddered at that realisation.

 

“I’ll stop as soon as I hear their little feet, but until then I want my domestic god to feel some pleasure.”

 

“I’m only baking cook… _ies_.” Harry finished on a sigh as Max started rubbing him in his large hand again, fingers working him over expertly.

 

“I love your cookies.” Max rumbled deeply as his hand moved faster as he rubbed himself against Harry’s bum.

 

Harry squeezed the piping bag in his hands tightly and put a glob of green icing on the counter, but he didn’t care as he muffled his shout of pleasure as his orgasm washed over him, right there in the kitchen where anyone could walk in, Max grunting behind him as they both wetted the insides of their boxer shorts with their mutual releases.

 

“Damn it Max.” Harry sighed softly and he shook his head, but the smile he wore almost split his face. “I love you.”

 

“I love you more.” Max murmured right before Farren slammed open the kitchen door and rushed in.

 

“Mum! Lai and Xabie have cookies, _I_ want a cookie too!” He pouted.

 

“You’re eleven in two weeks Farren, no pouting.” Max told him as he subtly fished his hand out of Harry’s boxers and moved to the sink to wash his hands.

 

Farren scowled instead. “Why do they get cookies? Is it because they’re younger?”

 

“No love, I just wanted them to be careful of the hot baking trays, so I gave them one each to get them out of the kitchen. Here you go, this is the first iced cookie I’ve given out, Lai and Xabiere didn’t have iced ones.”

 

Farren grinned as he bit the cookie in half in one bite before he hugged Harry tightly and ran off.

 

“He’s getting so boisterous.” Max sighed. “Just like I was. He almost took the door of its hinges”

 

“It’ll be fine love, Regan is very, very happy to wrestle with him and Braiden can play rough as much as Farren can. We never leave them alone, nothing will happen.”

 

“You can’t promise that.” Max denied. “He almost killed Lai when they were just babies.”

 

“He knows better now.” Harry said firmly. “He’s a good boy, just energetic.”

 

“Calix is energetic; Farren is on a different level.”

 

“What do you want me to say Max? I love all of my children and I don’t care if Farren is as boisterous as a pro wrestler on a sugar rush, he’s my son and I know we raised him better than to be some two bit thug who bullies his own brothers and sisters.”

 

“I know that, I just…I don’t know what I want, but I’m so worried that he’s going to do something to hurt one of the younger kids.”

 

“He won’t Max, just like you would never do it on purpose and never as a child. We need to give him room to breathe and to grow without smothering him or always hanging over his shoulder watching him or we’ll make him insecure and he’ll lack confidence. We need to trust him and his decisions and that we’ve done a good job in raising him. Now get out of the kitchen and go and clean up and lay out some clean boxers for me seeing as you soiled these ones.”

 

“I soiled them?” Max said with a raised eyebrow. “I think you did that all on your own.”

 

“Well…I did have a helping hand.” He laughed as he turned back to his Christmas cookies; listening to Max laugh and hearing Blaise ask him what was so funny.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Blaise was tired. It was Christmas Eve tomorrow and the kids were just so excited, but his little Evie was cutting a tooth and he’d been up for most of the night with iced washcloths and jelly teethers, of course all of them were to no effect and the only thing that worked was the potion that Max had mixed up, but it could only be applied every few hours.

He had put Evie to bed next door in the nursery and went to collapse onto his bed, crawling up it and falling onto Draco who was taking a moment of peace while reading a chapter or two of his book. He was hoping to finish it before Christmas. Max had bought him the newly released sequel for Christmas and Draco knew that he was getting the book, he just didn’t know off whom, but he wanted it all the same.

 

“How is Evie?” Draco asked.

 

“Sleeping for now.” Blaise grunted.

 

“You look tense. Tired and tense.”

 

“Oh do I really?” Blaise snapped. “I wonder why.”

 

“I can help you with that.” Draco said with a smirk and Blaise realised too late that Draco had put his book on the bedside table, right before he was rolled onto his back and before his tired brain could think of a way to counter the ‘attack’ Draco had his trousers down around his thighs, trapping his legs, and his boxers-briefs pulled down, his soft cock lying across his thigh.

 

It didn’t stay soft for very long as Draco took it into his mouth and laved it with his tongue. A tongue that could reduce a grown man to tears, though Max still swore it had been something in his eye and not because Draco had licked and sucked on him for over an hour. Draco was also very dangerous when giving a tongue lashing, his sharp wit matched evenly with his sharp tongue that could make you soar to the clouds or shrivel up and die a little inside and Draco was now applying that tongue to his cock and Blaise couldn’t help whimpering a little as his hands messed up Draco’s perfectly styled white-blond locks of silky, baby fine hair.

 

“Draco!” He groaned gutturally and Draco hummed questioningly around him, which made his hips moved on reflex into that warm, willing mouth.

 

Draco sucked and licked and played with him, pulling off to lick around his balls and perineum, sucking love bites onto his inside thighs, nipping at the soft crease where the highest part of the back of his thigh met his bum cheek before going back to sucking him down his throat.

Blaise did not last long and he couldn’t even feel embarrassed about it as he cummed down the back of Draco’s throat with a happy sigh. Draco was just too good with that tongue of his.

 

“Go to sleep now Blaise.” Draco murmured to him, his voice deep and rough from the abuse.

 

“What about you?” He asked even as he curled into a ball, moving so that his head was pillowed on Draco’s stomach where he had gone back to lounging against the pillows.

 

“All I want is to finish these last three chapters.” He told him, opening his book and slotting out his bookmark to carry on where he’d left off, his free hand falling to the nape of Blaise’s neck to run his fingers through the small hairs there that made Blaise shiver. “Get some sleep, it’s rare enough to find an hour of peace in this house, two is almost unheard of. Take it while you can.”

 

Blaise didn’t need to be told twice; exhausted and now content, happy and sated too, he fell asleep quickly and without any problem.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry sighed happily as he tugged on himself in the shower. He wasn’t allowed sex because he’d only just given birth a week ago to his twenty-first child, he’d been so sure he’d miss Christmas that he’d cried for days over it before he started nesting, but he’d gone into early labour and cut his new baby out two weeks before Christmas, he’d come out of his nest the next day incredibly happy that he wouldn’t have to spend Christmas alone and feral while his family all enjoyed themselves without him, it was one of his biggest fears, missing Christmas or a birthday because he was in his nest, pregnant and waiting for his labour to hit. His older children understood that it was out of his control, the younger children just wanted Mummy there to see them open their presents.

Harry groaned as the pleasure in his balls turned to a soft heat in his belly and he knew his orgasm would hit him soon. His mates had put him on a sex ban, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t pleasure himself in the shower as he moved his hand faster and moved his other hand down to fondle his own sac. He gave a light tug to his balls and a harder tug to his cock and he orgasmed with an inarticulate cry of pleasure.

He stroked himself slowly to keep his buzz going and to squeeze out the last drops of his cum as he eased down from his blissful release. He felt better and less stressed, though he did wish his mates were in the shower with him, but he knew that if they had been then they would have stopped him from doing such a ‘strenuous’ activity. No, sex wasn’t allowed and neither was masturbating, but the latter was harder for them to police when he had a lone shower or an early night or even an early morning. He’d masturbated a few times under the sheets while they were sleeping right next to him, it always made him feel extra naughty.

He chuckled a bit and stepped out from under the spray of water and grabbed a towel, it was a week until Christmas and they were putting the Christmas decorations up today, that was going to be a stressful, strenuous activity in on itself with twenty-one babies now to supervise and keep happy. That was going to be a struggle and Tegan, who enjoyed taking control of everything, was not going to let her brothers and sisters in on much of the decorating, though she had…mellowed out a little as she got older. Weeks away from being eleven years old now, she had grown into such a sassy little miss that Harry was sure she had borrowed genes from Draco upon her conception, but she still had to be in control or she felt she was being pushed out, even if she wasn’t.

Harry sighed and patted his caesarean scar dry; he was getting much better at carrying now and he was becoming cleaner and neater in his incisions when he was birthing, which left him with neat scars that healed much quicker and easier.

Smiling as he dressed himself, he heard Ceri asking Blaise where Mummy was and Harry opened the bathroom door and scooped one of his three year old quadruplets up into his arms and kissed the oldest one of the four gently.

 

“Good morning Ceri, how are you sweetheart?”

 

“Kay Mummy, the new baby was crying, but Dada Nassa gived baby a bottle.” Ceri nodded as serious as any three year old could be.

 

Harry kissed Ceri again and walked out of the bedroom.

 

“You shouldn’t be carrying…”

 

“I’ll carry my children all I want to.” Harry said stubbornly as he went down into the chaos that was twenty active children and a baby who had been born just a week ago. This Christmas was going to be more hectic and more chaotic than last year and he really would have it no other way.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

“Why am I wearing this?” Blaise asked with something that looked very suspiciously like a pout.

 

“I like it.” Harry grinned as he looked at the bell covered cock ring he’d managed to convince Blaise to wear.

 

Blaise shifted and the bells on the cock ring tinkled merrily. Harry laughed.

 

“That is just adorable Blaise. Can I have a photo?” He asked.

 

“Absolutely not!” Blaise hissed.

 

“Pleaseeee?”

 

Blaise glared at him. Harry gave his very best puppy expression and looked up at Blaise pleadingly.

 

“If I promise to suck you and then offer myself up to your every fantasy, can I have one picture?” He begged.

 

“Every fantasy I have? Without question?”

 

Harry nodded trustingly and Blaise grinned then. “Okay, one photo.”

 

Harry grinned and rushed to grab his camera; he snapped a single, perfect photo and then dropped to his knees, opening his mouth in an invitation for Blaise, who tinkled merrily with every step he took to reach him. Harry had to suppress every overwhelming urge he had to just burst out laughing. He made an odd choking noise in the back of his throat instead.

 

“If you laugh, my cock is going right down your throat, right to the jingle bells.”

 

Harry couldn’t have stopped himself then if he had cared to try. He burst out in hysterical laughter and he just couldn’t stop. Blaise kept his promise, he grabbed Harry by the hair, held him in place and pushed himself into his mouth while he was still laughing, he didn’t push into his throat though, he just kept the head of himself inside his mouth until suddenly he wasn’t laughing anymore but sucking and laving with a serious fervour.

 

“You know just how I like it.” Blaise groaned. “I miss it being just us sometimes, that’s why I like moments like these, just us where we can do what we want without interruption. I love you Harry and Merlin you can suck.”

 

Harry hummed in the back of his throat, agreeing with Blaise about it being just them. Blaise sighed and brushed his hair with his fingers, combing it and moving his head gently by cupping the back of his neck.

 

“I love you so much, mio Prezioso.”

 

Harry sucked harder and took Blaise into his mouth deeper and when it looked like Blaise was going to pass out from being denied his orgasm, Harry unsnapped the bell adorned cock ring and Blaise yelled out his release while Harry swallowed him down, managing it only after the amount of practice he’d had over the years. He’d been god awful at giving a blow job when he’d been first mated. He was much better at it now he thought as he watched Blaise come down from his high, he liked the jingle bell cock ring, he’d definitely pull it out for the next festive season after the success of this one.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

The trip to Santa’s grotto with twenty-five children was utter chaos. They’d booked this visit special, for a small fortune as well, to have Santa all to themselves for fifteen minutes.

Braiden at twelve years old was helping to herd his younger siblings into the small warehouse with the queue of parents with a gaggle of children swarming around their feet, excited to meet Santa and the elves.

Harry slipped into the red fabric covered area and he sighed out loud. His ten year old identical twins were on Santa’s lap already, demanding they get the broomsticks they wanted. Harry flushed, he’d warned them not to say such things in public, they knew better at their age.

Of course one of them then decided to yank on Santa’s beard, which came right off and very nearly snapped the elastic of it. Nasta tugged the offender off, chastising them both for being disruptive, but it was no less than any other child was doing, Xabiere had even gotten into the bags of gifts that Santa handed out to ‘good little boys’ and girls’’ and was tearing the paper from the toys happily.

 

“Behave!” Draco hissed at them all. “This is not how we behave in public!”

 

“I told you this would be a bad idea.” Blaise told him, their near newborn in his arms.

 

Harry just shook his head. Max was laughing so hard he was hunched over, Nasta was telling off their twins and Draco was trying to wrangle up the other kids.

 

“I need a holiday.” He sighed softly as he looked at the growing carnage.

 

He whistled sharply and all of his children stopped and looked at him. He gave them his best ‘you are all in so much trouble’ look and they all stayed still, looking at the floor and scuffing their shoes on the floor.

 

“I think that when Santa hears about this incident that he will take all of your presents away from you for being so naughty to one of his helpers. We told you what behaviour we expected of you all before we left the house and within five minutes you’ve broken nearly every rule we gave you all. None of you will be having ice cream today.”

 

There were shouts of denial and cries and his younger children even came to clutch at him as if that would make him change his mind.

 

“Say goodbye to Santa’s helper and we’ll be going home.” Harry said firmly.

 

His youngest children, the ones under five, all started crying and he felt bad for a few of them, for them this was their first visit to Santa, but he couldn’t accept this sort of behaviour from them. There were too many of them and they outnumbered him and his mates.

 

“No.” He said firmly. “You’ve spoilt this for yourselves. Your Daddies and I arranged this specially for you all, just so that you could ask for what you wanted for Christmas from Santa’s helper and you’ve spoilt it. Now Santa won’t know what you want most for Christmas, so you won’t have it.”

 

He had tears aimed at him then and he had to grind his teeth together to stop himself from falling all over himself just to make them feel better. This was the part of parenting he hated. The tough love and the not giving in even though all he wanted was to promise them any and everything they wanted just to make them happy.

 

“You can come back later if you wanted.” The man dressed as Santa told him in a whisper so that the kids couldn’t hear them. “Take them to calm down and then come back, you paid a hell of a lot of money to just throw it away.”

 

“Thank you, we’ll do that. Is half an hour good for you?” Nasta asked.

 

The man nodded and Max clapped his hands. “All of you. Here. Now.”

 

The kids went reluctantly, crying and sobbing, but they still went and Harry hoped that they could get them calmed down in half an hour to bring them back. Maybe a quick snack or a drink and a sit down would help; they had been standing in line with nothing to do for a long while.

He picked up Ceri and Momo and carried them both crying from Santa’s grotto, ignoring the looks from the other parents who all whispered behind their hands that of course they couldn’t control so many kids and of course five men couldn’t raise kids as well as a standard one man, one woman couple could.

Harry breathed deeply and kept himself calm. He was too old to let such things bother him anymore and he knew better. His kids were just bored, overstimulated and needed a break to centre themselves again and then they’d be the most well behaved kids in this entire place and he and his lovers could look after them better than anyone else in the world, because they were their children and they loved them with every single molecule of their hearts and nothing that happened would ever change that.

Nasta got them all settled on an outside picnic area, because of the snow and the wind they had it all to themselves and he handed all of the kids a juice carton, the older kids got bottles of water or juice. They were all sullen and silent as they drank.

 

“Now, you disappointed all of us in there. You let us down.” Nasta told them all disapprovingly. “You behaved terribly and embarrassed us all and in front of Santa’s helper too. I’d be surprised if Santa didn’t take every single present we’ve bought for you back to the North pole with him when he brings the presents for your Mummy, me and your other Dad’s.”

 

“No! Daddy Nassa no! No let him!”

 

“Do you think you deserve your presents now after how you behaved?” Harry demanded.

 

All of his children looked down at the ground and sniffled.

 

“Are you sorry?” Draco asked.

 

They all nodded and looked up at Draco beseechingly.

 

“Say it.” Blaise encouraged them and all of them started apologising and sobbing out their sorries.

 

“Santa’s helper has agreed to see you all again.” Harry told them. “But your Daddies and I are not convinced that you deserve to ask for more presents after how you’ve behaved.”

 

“Please Mummy, we sorry.” Macie cried out.

 

“We can see that you’re all sorry.” Max told them. “So we’re going to take a little break here and then we’re going to try this again. But if you even think to act like you did the first time, you will never get to do this ever again and we’ll take the younger kids and leave you all at home.”

 

The kids remained quiet and sniffling as they finished their drinks. Braiden came and sat next to Harry and he sat so close that Harry half expected him to climb onto his lap, but Braiden was twelve now, a second year in Hogwarts and on the verge of becoming a teenager. He wouldn’t climb onto his lap now, especially not in public.

 

“I wasn’t being bad Mum.” Braiden whispered softly.

 

Harry smiled and nudged Braiden gently with his shoulder. “I know you weren’t love. We all saw that. You won’t be in trouble when you did nothing wrong, you’re a good boy; you always have been, even if you do have a few wobbles. I don’t think great-granddad Bastien has regained his hearing yet after you screamed at him.”

 

Braiden actually blushed and Harry chuckled.

 

“We don’t punish those who haven’t done anything wrong love; you should know that by now.”

 

 Braiden nodded. “Leolin wasn’t doing anything either, he was stood by me and I think all the noise frightened him. He was curling up into himself like he was scared and I tried to make him feel better, but there was too much going on.”

 

“You’re a good brother, we saw who was being bad and who wasn’t, but Daddy Draco has Leolin now, see.”

 

Harry nodded to where Draco had an eleven year old Leolin cocked on his hip, though he looked more like a seven or eight year old due to his Faerie blood.

Braiden looked happier at that and he happily went off with Farren, who towered over all of his siblings, and Regan, who had snuck away from Tegan, who was happily talking to Calix and Jay.

 

“I really need that holiday.” Harry groaned and lay back against the top of the bench.

 

“How about some good sex?”

 

Harry’s eyes snapped open his eyes to see Max bending over him. He grinned.

 

“That would work too.”

 

“Then let’s sneak away. We’ll tell the kids that we’re going to go send letters to Santa to explain that they’re sorry and tell the others that we’re going to buy some more gifts.”

 

Harry grinned. “I love you so much right now.”

 

Ten minutes later they’d left the kids in the warehouse tent grotto with Nasta, Blaise and Draco and they’d snuck away to find a small alcove well away from the children and the people and down into a small wooded area.

They were both laughing like kids and Max swung him up and pressed him into a tree and snogged the breath out of him.

They had a very short amount of time to be together, so they were a little rushed, a little hurried, but it was still blissful as Max prepared him as gently as he could while still rushing.

 

“Do you remember the first time we did this? Against that wall in that dirty alleyway?” Harry asked.

 

“You mean when you attacked and seduced me?” Max chuckled deeply as he pressed himself into Harry’s body.

 

“I did not attack or seduce you.” Harry denied, even as he threw his head back against the tree he was pressed against.

 

“My memory of that night must be different to yours then.” Max laughed.

 

“Well you were drunk.” Harry said with a happy grin as the feel of Max inside him relaxed him into an almost boneless pool.

 

“I was the drunk one?!” Max scoffed.

 

“Nice of you to admit it.” Harry laughed.

 

Max growled playfully and pulled out and pushed back into him. Harry sighed happily.

 

“I love that feeling so much.”

 

Pulling out and pushing back into him again, Max set up a punishing pace, the both of them ignoring the cold and the snow which bit at their naked skin as they fucked against the tree.

 

“Fuck Max! Harder!” Harry begged as he got his hands against the tree and pushed back into Max’s thrusts.

 

“Oh fuck I love you!” Max growled and he bit down on Harry’s neck, just as he flooded the inside of Harry’s body as he orgasmed.

 

Harry followed him almost immediately afterwards, releasing himself against the tree and he laughed out all of the tension that had been building.

 

“We haven’t done anything this naughty in years.” Harry all but giggled. “I’ve missed being naughty.”

 

“I say we give the kids to the grandparents for a day and have a naughty fest.”

 

“I say we do that and I bring out that gorgeous new skirt I haven’t had the chance to wear yet.”

 

“I don’t like that idea; I’ll have blue balls for hours because you’re too much of a fucking tease.”

 

“You like me being a tease.” Harry laughed.

 

“Not towards me!” Max denied as he helped Harry redress and clean up, though there was nothing to be done about the abomination that was his hair or the just fucked look he was wearing.

 

They made their way back to the shopping warehouse and bought a few things, but there was no fooling the other three when they rejoined them and three heads snapped to look at them both. They grinned naughtily and Nasta shook his head as if there was no more hope left, but Harry soon had an armful of children all asking him if Santa had forgiven them.

He shared a look with his mates and Nasta nodded slightly, to silently tell him that the kids had been well behaved this time around.

 

“Oh, I think Santa has forgiven you all just fine, now come on. Let’s get you all home and Daddy Max can make us all a hot chocolate to warm up.”

 

His children all cheered happily and Harry shared a look with Max, who gave him an air kiss as he swung two kids up into his arms and let Xabiere climb up to sit on his shoulders. They’d had a good day after all, despite the trouble with the kids. The sex more than made up for it Harry thought as he grinned.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Max knew he was too tired to be doing this when he opened the top cupboard and hit himself in the face with it because he hadn’t moved out of the way.

He cursed and then groaned as he rubbed the bump on his forehead. He was glad he only had a few more preparations to make before he could leave it until the big day tomorrow. At least the turkey and the joint of beef had been cooked and he didn’t have to worry about them until he needed to carve them up for tomorrow.

 

“Are you alright?” Draco asked as he came in to the kitchen to put two empty bottles into the sink.

 

He surprised Max by tipping out the remains and washing them up, over fourteen years they’d been together and still Draco was very phobic of doing cleaning the Muggle way, but Harry refused to get a house elf. He agreed with Harry, he didn’t want a house elf in his home, doing things for him when he was completely capable of doing it himself. His parents had raised him to do for himself and he would and he wanted to raise his children the same. He understood that Draco and even Blaise had been raised differently, so he didn’t put too much pressure on them to clean up, though he did expect them to clean up after themselves, even if it was just dropping their cups into the sink for him to wash up later, he wouldn’t complain as long as they weren’t left lying around.

 

“I’m going to bed now Dad.” Braiden said as he came in to the kitchen. “I got the little kids to sleep, but Mum is still trying to calm down Evie, Momo, Ser and Sen. Farren thought it would be funny to wind them up.”

 

“Is Farren in his bedroom?” Draco asked.

 

Braiden nodded, scowling as he swiped at the long lock of jet black hair that had fallen into his purple eyes. He was truly a very handsome fourteen year old, slim and slender, angular and aristocratic like Blaise with some softness to his face from Harry, according to the four quintuplets at Hogwarts with him, he already had a girlfriend in Ravenclaw.

Harry had sat down with him after hearing that and reminded him that under no circumstances was he allowed to be intimate with anyone just in case he was a submissive.

Harry had come back to them over an hour later and he’d reported that Braiden had blushed seven shades of red and had told him in an embarrassed whisper that he wasn’t ready to do anything other than hold hands and kiss a bit. It was a crush, not love or even lust. He liked this girl because she was so smart and she’d actually started as his study buddy. They went to Hogsmeade together, he bought her a Butterbeer, maybe some sweets from Honeydukes and they just walked around holding hands and had a few chaste kisses and he would meet up with her after lessons and they’d still study together in the library. Calix had seen them kissing on one of the Hogsmeade weekends and had told his quintuplet siblings, who had taken great delight in teasing their older brother for his crush and his almost innocent dating.

Max didn’t blame any girl for wanting his oldest son though, he was growing to be a devastatingly handsome teenager, he just hoped that they’d raised him as well as they thought they had and instilled in him all the traits and virtues they believed he needed and would benefit from.

 

“Come here kid.” He said and pulled Braiden into a tight hug when he came over to him. He kissed his forehead and then pushed him off towards the door. “Get to bed or Santa won’t visit you.”

 

Braiden rolled his eyes, but he laughed, his voice going from high to low as his voice broke yet again. He scowled and held the front of his throat, over his Adam’s apple.

 

“When will this stop?” He demanded.

 

“When your body decides it does.” Draco told him, pulling him into his own hug. “We’ve all been through it; it’s just one of those things.”

 

“It’s embarrassing, especially when I’m talking to my friends and my voice just goes from low to high in mid-sentence. They laugh at me.”

 

“It happens Braiden; we’ve talked about this, you’re going through puberty now, you’ll have to put up with it, but remember that it doesn’t last forever and every other boy has to go through this too. If your friends are teasing and laughing at you now, then just think, by the time their voice starts warbling between high and low like yours, then your voice would have already broken and you can happily laugh at them back with your new, deeper, manly voice.”

 

Braiden grinned. “I never thought of it like that.”

 

Max laughed. “Glad we could be of help, now get to bed or your Mum will have a fit.”

 

“I’m too old to believe in Santa, Dad.” Braiden answered.

 

“That doesn’t mean you can ruin it for your brothers or sisters.” Draco said seriously. “We know you’re too old to believe in such children’s stories, but your brothers and sisters do believe in it and you’ll upset them if they know you’re awake. You don’t have to go to sleep, but you can do anything you want to in your room as long as you’re quiet. It’s only for one night.”

 

Braiden sighed and nodded. “Okay, I’ll go to my room, but I’m not a child.”

 

Max watched him leave the room and he sighed.

 

“When did our little boy become so grown up?” He asked sadly. “Where is the little boy who clung to me because he liked hugs and the little boy who grinned at everyone he met because he was just that type of boy?”

 

“He grew up Max.” Draco sighed. “They’re all growing up so fast and that little boy is fourteen now, he’s in school and he even has a girlfriend. He’s not our baby anymore, he’s a teenager and only two years away from his first mate meeting, whether dominant or submissive remains to be seen, but just two years and he could be starting his own family. It gives me a terrible pain in my gut every single time I think of it.”

 

“Me too. Come here love.”

 

Max held Draco tightly and lowered his head the three inches that separated them to kiss those plush, pale lips. It was meant as a supportive, loving, chaste kiss, but it didn’t stay that way as they wrapped their arms around one another and it changed in an instant and the passion that had always been there between them for nearly fifteen years took over as Max slipped a thigh between Draco’s legs and lifted him up with it so he could get a better grip on his bum without letting his lips go.

 

“We’re in the kitchen.” Draco complained when they broke apart for air.

 

“I know.”

 

“You’re in the middle of cooking and preparing food!”

 

“I know.” Max repeated, not caring as he stared at Draco’s lips before diving down to take them back in his own, stroking his tongue over Draco’s gently.

 

Clothes just seemed to fall off of them and into a heap until they were left in odd bits and pieces of clothing and it was like a desperate pull of energy that tugged them together and Draco just naturally opened himself for Max, kissing back with fervour but letting Max push slicked fingers into him.

They broke apart to catch their breath again, Draco’s chest was heaving.

 

“Do I even want to know what you’ve slicked me up with?” Draco asked breathlessly.

 

“Lube. I had some of those sample sachets still in my pocket from when we went Christmas shopping this morning.” Max said with a grin.

 

“How many did you take?”

 

“A handful.” Max said his grin widening. “And I have big hands. It works well I think, we might have to get a bottle or two of this stuff, it makes my thrusts really smooth.”

 

“You’re only using your fin… _gers_.” Draco ended on a sigh as Max jammed his fingers into him hard and rough and his head fell back on his shoulders. “That’s good.”

 

“I know, this lube is amazing! I have to try this out properly.”

 

Max pulled his fingers free and tore open another sachet of sample lube with his teeth, squeezing it out messily one handed and he threw the lube covered packet to the floor as he used what was actually all over his hand to cover the majority of his cock before he adjusted Draco against the wall to get a better angle for penetration before he pressed inside him.

 

“Phenomenal. This lube is the best!” Max groaned. “It’s so fucking smooth!”

 

“Stop going on about the fucking lube!” Draco growled as he tugged on Max’s hair.

 

“You’re phenomenal too.” Max assured him. “How does the lube feel for you though? Does it burn, do you think it might irritate?”

 

“You’re irritating me at the minute! The lube is fine; just fuck me before I lose it!”

 

“So demanding.” Max murmured as he nosed around Draco’s ear. “I love it.” He hissed into that ear before he nibbled at it, his movements smooth and fluid. He groaned happily.

 

Draco echoed him and he almost knocked Max unconscious when a particularly well aimed thrust had him pitching forward and headbutting his lover.

 

“Fuck! Always so rough Draco, if you wanted more, all you had to do was ask.” Max growled as he surged forward and slammed Draco’s back into the wall, fucking him with passionate abandon.

 

Draco couldn’t help it, couldn’t hold back the scream as he orgasmed, Max following him almost to the same second.

Of course Nasta, Blaise and Harry burst into the kitchen, Blaise first as he had been the closest to the kitchen, to look at them.

Max laughed gutturally and tiredly and Draco just flushed pink and dropped his head to Max’s shoulder when he caught sight of Harry’s knowing grin, Blaise’s lusty perusal and Nasta’s disapproving frown.

 

“We have too much to do tonight without you two swanning off to have sex every five minutes.” Nasta told them.

 

“We had sex once and really it had a purpose.”

 

“Oh? Would you care to share why us three are busting our backs to get everything ready for tomorrow and you two are here having sex in our kitchen?”

 

“I got samples of a new lube.” Max said unapologetically. “It’s amazing, seriously, you have to try it. It’s so smooth I almost glided into Draco.”

 

“Really?” Harry asked interestedly, grinning from ear to ear.

 

“Down boy.” Blaise said teasingly as he pressed a hand to Harry’s slim shoulder.

 

“I’ll show you myself when we get the chance, until then, I think we had better clean up and finish everything before we run out of sleeping time.”

 

“I couldn’t agree more.” Nasta replied dryly, but he gave a snort of laughter and shook his head, a smirk forming on his lips. “Though you do look especially good like this, especially with that little hint of a pink flush. When we have time next, I’m going to make the both of you go that colour, but until then…move it.”

 

Draco chuckled and stood on his own two legs, tugging on the clothing he had missing from his body before he was roped into helping set up the living room, they had so many children now that they barely had room for the one settee and the Christmas tree and the floor was a sea of presents for the children he absolutely adored with all of his heart, he wouldn’t ever have this another way. He had always enjoyed Christmas and now that he had his own family, his own children, he only loved it more.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Nasta was ready to tear his hair out as his newly toddling child fell and grabbed onto the newly decorated tree, only to drag the whole thing down on top of himself.

 

“Eaffan!” Momo cried out, completely distressed by what had just happened.

 

Nasta was there in seconds, digging his twenty-one month old son out from amid the fake branches and the wooden and plastic decorations and garlands of tinsel.

His son giggled happily and clapped his little, chubby hands together.

 

“Gen Dada, gen!” He cried out excitedly.

 

“I think you’ve had more than enough of being buried alive under Christmas trees for one day sweet child.”

 

His son screamed in absolute joy, still clapping his hands and wriggling his little bootie clad feet.

 

“What happened?” Harry demanded, looking stressed and like he’d been run over. He was three months pregnant with twins and he had just the barest hint of a bump showing through the comfortable, festive jumper he was wearing. Their children had picked it out for their Mummy when he and Blaise had taken them shopping for Christmas last year and they’d begged to get something for their Mummy and when they’d seen the jumper, they wanted it as a present for their Mummy and who was he to deny his children the pleasure of giving a gift to their Mother for Christmas?

 

“Just a little tree accident, it happens several times each year, our adventurous little boy here decided he wanted to tip the tree onto himself and guess what? He now wants to do it again.”

 

“Gen! Gen!” The little boy in his arms screeched happily, wriggling in delight. Nasta laughed at him and kissed one of his bright apple cheeks that had a healthy pink stain to it.

 

“Oh sweetheart.” Harry sighed, shaking his head with a smile. “I think you should be in bed, young man.”

 

“Cuddle?”

 

“Yes, we can cuddle first. Momo, do you want to come up for a cuddle and a story too?”

 

“Yes Muma.”

 

“Come on then.”

 

Nasta smiled as he watched Harry carry their children away. He sighed like a love sick fool before shaking it off and going about picking up their tree and redecorating it.

 

“That smile on your face makes me all soft inside.” Blaise told him as he came to kiss him.

 

Nasta, feeling particularly romantic, swung Blaise around and dipped him in his arms before snogging him senseless.

 

“What was that for?” Blaise asked with a laugh when they broke apart.

 

“Because I love you so very much. Let me show you how much.”

 

Blaise couldn’t say anything, he just nodded.

A wave of a wand and the door clicked closed and it locked and in the next moment his trousers were gone and his cock was in Nasta’s throat.

A hand over his mouth stopped him from screaming, but the muffled noises he made more than showed how much he was enjoying himself.

Nasta licked and sucked on him, moving his mouth and jaw and his tongue to bring as much pleasure as he could, ignoring the ache that had already started to form in his jaw and neck. Blaise wriggled and writhed, gasped and croaked, almost choking on his tongue as Nasta played with his cock with his lips, it was unimaginable pleasure and his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head when he orgasmed hard down his lover’s throat. He almost passed out from the force of his pleasure and when Nasta had drank all of him down, he lay gasping and rolling from side to side to ease down his sudden, powerful orgasm. He felt like he couldn’t breathe and he must have had a terribly goofy look on his face because Nasta was giving him that adoring look from his wet looking lips.

 

“I love you Blaise.” Nasta said deeply, his throat raw sounding, but he was grinning.

 

“Love you too.” Blaise grinned dopily.

 

“Come on, let’s take this to the bedroom and see if we can’t convince the other three that we need to have a bit of fun.” Nasta said as he pulled him up and settled him in to his arms. “I’m in the mood for some passionate loving tonight.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

“What the hell is that?” Harry asked as he stared at the bright red bottle in Draco’s hands.

 

“It’s cranberry flavoured lube.” Draco told him with an eyebrow wiggle.

 

“Seriously? Festive flavoured lube.” Harry laughed. “What will they think of next?”

 

“I don’t know, but I was thinking that we could try this out, just us.”

 

Harry grinned. “I like that idea. Come here Draco; let’s go see if this stuff tastes as good as Max’s own cranberry sauce.”

 

“I doubt it, but I’ll consider it a plus if it tastes like cranberries at all.”

 

Harry laughed as they locked their bedroom door and started kissing, moving towards their bed, stripping off clothing as they went.

 

“How are we going to do this?” Harry asked as he looked at the red bottle then to Draco.

 

“Like this.” Draco answered before diving on him and rolling him onto his stomach and pinning him there. “It’s been forever since I last rimmed you, what better way to get what I want and taste this festive lubricant?”

 

Harry shivered with lust and he sighed softly, spreading his knees and letting Draco have all the access he wanted.

 

“This is one of my favourite sights.” Draco told him as he kissed a pert bum cheek gently before licking over it and giving a sharp bite to the flesh under his lips.

 

He flipped the top off of the lube and drizzled it all over Harry’s bum and between the soft skinned cheeks. He bent his head and nibbled on the flesh, flicking his tongue into the line of lube.

 

“What…what does it taste like?” Harry asked breathlessly.

 

“A bit plasticy, but there is definitely a hint of cranberry, it’s not as nice as the strawberry lube, but it’s nice, more than nice enough to eat you with.”

 

Harry moaned lightly at that as Draco moved his mouth over and around his bum, collecting up lube before he dived right between his cheeks and licked at his entrance. Harry fisted the sheets in his hands and tugged on them, his toes curling as Draco’s tongue flicked out over and over, teasing him and torturing him.

He stopped periodically to squeeze out another glob of festive lube and then went right back to licking, sucking and flicking his tongue against Harry’s quivering, clenching entrance and the sounds his lover made enflamed him, the groans, the moans, the curses, the screams of his name and the inaudible babbling hardened him to stone and he rubbed himself against the sheets as his hand stroked Harry’s hot, throbbing cock in one hand.

Harry ripped the sheets in his hand and screamed when he orgasmed and Draco just couldn’t help it as he followed him shortly afterward. He gave one last lick to clean the remaining lube from Harry and he sat back and pulled Harry into a hug, laying them up against the pillows, ignoring the ripped sheets that only made him feel more accomplished. He wiped his mouth and his chin and grinned as an exhausted Harry drifted into a doze against him. He had to do this more often, festive lube or not.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry jumped onto Nasta’s back and wrapped arms and legs around him tightly.

 

“May I help you Sir?” Nasta asked in a false, high end accent.

 

Harry chuckled. “Oh, I think you might be able to.”

 

Nasta swung him around and Harry saw the look on his face when he caught sight of what he was wearing.

 

“Ffyc fi.” He muttered.

 

“You’re drifting back into Welsh again love.” Harry grinned.

 

“I really don’t care.” Nasta answered as he rushed up the stairs with Harry clutched in his arms like one of their children. Harry laughed as he clutched the red hat with white trim to his head so that he didn’t lose it.

 

Nasta tossed him down onto the bed and Harry controlled the fall so instead of bouncing on the mattress he rolled, his very short, red velvet skirt edged with white fluff not hiding anything as he stopped on his back and spread his legs, the skirt bunching up around his waist like a festive belt showing off the red and white lace garter and the tiny little pair of red panties that were bulging so much Harry wondered if it was possible for an erection to rip through lace.

 

“You look stunning just like this.” Nasta declared. “No, no not yet. Lose the crop top.”

 

Harry did as Nasta asked and took of the matching top before lying back down and holding his bent arms next to his head on the pillow and giving Nasta his most smouldering look.

 

“Oh love, I’d jump you if you were wearing a scowl and seven layers of dragon dung, you didn’t have to do this for me.”

 

“It’s nearly Christmas; I’m getting into the festive mood.” Harry smiled.

 

“I can see that and what better way to start off the festive season than to dress up as Mrs Claus when all of our children are sound asleep and ambushing one of your lovers.”

 

“Exactly!” Harry grinned.

 

Nasta chuckled deeply and bent to give him a soft kiss which grew into much, much more as rough, calloused hands mapped his body slowly, painfully slowly.

 

“Nas, please. No teasing tonight.”

 

Nasta laughed. “Oh Cariad, you wore this outfit with the sole purpose of teasing me and now you don’t want me to tease you back? That’s not very fair, Caru.”

 

Harry pleaded with his eyes, but that just made Nasta give a throaty laugh and a small shake of his head as he went back to running his hands all over Harry’s soft skin, laying his upper body on him and using his mouth and tongue to get Harry more wound up than he already was, seeing the straining bulge in those tiny, tight panties was really doing something to him.

He worried at the garter around Harry’s upper thigh, not taking it off but tugging at it with his teeth and dragging it up and down his leg to tease.

 

“You’re evil.” Harry pouted as he shifted restlessly on the bed.

 

Nasta kissed up from the garter, all the way to the edge of the lacy panties and he licked over them, licking over the bulge within.

 

“I’m not evil; I’m just paying you back in kind.”

 

“There’s nothing kind about teasing me.”

 

“There wasn’t in you teasing me either.”

 

“You enjoyed it though.” Harry pointed out.

 

Nasta chuckled darkly and cupped Harry through the panties. “You enjoy the teasing too.”

 

Harry dropped his head back against the pillows and whined softly. “Please…”

 

“Oh alright then, I suppose I could save the teasing for after I’ve fucked you in this itty bitty skirt.”

 

“Yes please! Wait…what?!”

 

Nasta laughed as he moved his hand to cup a pert bum cheek, teasing the panties down and throwing them away. His fingers moved to tease some more, only to touch wet slick.

 

“I…I already prepared myself.”

 

Nasta’s pupils blew wide and he let out a shaky breath. “Oh I love you so much right now. You really do want to get right to the fucking, don’t you?”

 

Harry nodded and spread himself open for Nasta yet again.

 

“Did you prepare yourself thoroughly?”

 

“With a vibrator.” Harry said with a wide grin.

 

Nasta’s shoulders quivered at that and he blew out all the air in his lungs, he felt intoxicated with lust. He pulled himself out of his trousers and stroked himself several times and then he scooted up the bed until he could push himself into Harry.

 

“You’ve wound me up now love, I’m going to fuck you good and hard and then afterward I’m going to tease you back to hardness and then love you so slowly and thoroughly that you cry before I’m finished.”

 

“Please!” Harry begged, the iris of his eye nothing more than a thin ring of dark green around a blown pupil.

 

Nasta pulled out and then pushed back in in quick succession he didn’t give Harry a moment to get used to him or the rhythm he’d chosen and when he got into his stride, he circled his hips like he knew all of his mates loved and got his hips into their own rhythm, moving his whole body with every stroke and ripping screams and shouts from Harry’s filthy mouth, pleads and begs and the offers of anything he wanted in the world if only he’d let Harry cum.

He did just that, he tugged on Harry until his little mate arched his back until he honestly thought his spine would snap in two and screamed his orgasm to the ceiling.

Nasta pushed through the orgasm, centring himself and forcing back his utter need to just release into Harry’s clenching body. It was almost a sweet form of torture to hold himself back when all he wanted so much was to just let his release wash over him.

He kept his rhythm, ignored his screaming, protesting muscles and brought Harry to another screaming orgasm and he just couldn’t hold himself back any longer and he roared his own orgasm as he filled Harry’s body, the little skirt twisted and bunched up around his waist.

Nasta didn’t even have the energy to pull out of Harry after that as he collapsed down on top of him and held him tight in his arms.

 

“I thought you were going to tease me some more?” Harry asked tiredly, almost in a whisper through his abused throat.

 

“I think you’ve been teased enough and you’ve tired me out so much I don’t think I can move, but I love you so much. I want to stay right here with you in my arms and I don’t want to let you go.”

 

“All night?” Harry said with a tired smile.

 

“All night.” Nasta promised with his own matching smile.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

It was Christmas night and Harry had just finished tucking all of his children into bed and he was completely shattered. He went right from the nursery into his bedroom and he collapsed onto the bed and crawled onto someone’s lap. Arms wrapped around him and Harry smiled tiredly.

 

“It’s too damn late.” Blaise grumbled. “The kids should have been in bed four hours ago.”

 

“I know, but damn it was a good day. Did you see their faces when they saw all the presents?” Harry asked with a grin.

 

Someone pulled him up the bed and he was kissed gently. He kissed back tiredly even though his back ached from picking up all of his children so often throughout the day. He’d had Ser cocked on his hip practically for the entire day.

Blaise straddled the back of his body and firm hands started massaging his aching back.

 

“Oh, have I told you recently how much I love you?” Harry sighed in sheer pleasure.

 

“I believe you’ve told me at least several times today at least.” Blaise smiled.

 

Harry moaned when four sets of hands started rubbing and caressing his body. He was too tired to get hard, but he very much appreciated the loving gesture regardless.

 

“We won’t go too far tonight. It’s been a very long day and we’re all exhausted, but I feel the need to just touch you.” Nasta smiled and lay down next to him pulling Harry’s hand onto his chest and he started massaging his fingers, the palm of his hand and up his arm. It felt amazing.

 

Christmas had been amazing this year, as it was every year despite what happened, this year they’d had a broken toy, an argument between Regan and Calix and three tantrums over moved toys or someone playing with a toy that wasn’t theirs, but no matter how many arguments there were, Harry still loved seeing the joy on his children’s faces and as he had his whole body touched, caressed and massaged, he found himself drifting in and out of sleep as his mates relaxed him.

Christmas was a time for family and even if they’d been dirt poor and could only scrape together enough for a gift each and just a quarter of the food that Max had piled together for the feast they’d eaten, Harry wouldn’t have cared. As long as he had his four lovers and his sweet children, he could have lived in a hole in the ground and Christmas would have still have been special for him as long as he had his family with him. It’s all he’d ever wanted and all he needed and Christmas was the time of the year that reminded him firmly that he had his family, that his biggest dream had come true. He had his mates, he had his children, he had his family and at the end of the day, after everything was done and said, that’s all he really needed in life.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Several hours late because Fanfiction decided to crash today. I’m so sorry I couldn’t get this out earlier for you Lizzie, hopefully you had a good day despite working and I hope you enjoy this, even if it was late. 
> 
> Anyway, Merry Christmas for all of you who celebrate it, even though it’s now Boxing Day where I am because it’s gone midnight, but this was supposed to have been up earlier, but thanks to Fanfic it was impossible to get it up any earlier.  
> I hope you’ve all enjoyed this chapter and I hope you’ll leave me a review as a gift for the amount of work that went into this!  
> Chapter 83 of The Rise of the Drackens will be out tomorrow (27th) and then I’ll be going on a break to catch up with my reading, until then lovelies,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	35. Peace

Peace

 

Draco couldn’t believe that the tiny baby he was holding in his arms was his first biological baby. It had taken a while, but the wait had just made this moment all the more captivating and intoxicating.

Harry was resting and recovering downstairs on the settee, forbidden from getting up, not that he wanted to get up; this birth had taken a lot from him. Max and Blaise had more than enough on their plates with their older children and Nasta had been called to a serious emergency at his work place and he’d had to go, despite Harry giving birth just the day before. Apparently several dragons were sick from the bitter, icy coldness of the plunging temperature and the handlers were concerned, as one of their senior handlers, Nasta had been consulted and bombarded with fire calls over the last week and a half, he had refused to leave while Harry was nesting, but now the dragons had all taken a turn for the worst and Nasta could no longer put off the welfare of the dragons under his care.

Draco had slipped off upstairs with his first blood child and had gone to the solitude and peace of their bedroom. He could still hear the screeches and giggles from his older children downstairs, but it was just soft background noise as he made obsessively sure that the tiny little newborn in his arms was still wrapped up in the pale purple and white patchwork blanket that Molly Weasley had knitted. It was cold out and though their house was heated and warm, there was no such thing as being too careful.

He sat against the headboard of his bed, pillow propping him up to support his back, his legs stretched out in front of him and his newborn held tightly and securely in his arms, he brushed the silk fine, white-blonde downy hair gently with his fingertips, marvelling that he had made this tiny baby, that he and the man he loved had made this baby together. It was an exhilarating feeling.

A tiny, tiny coral pink lip was rolled in sleep before it was sucked under the top lip, into the tiny mouth and, not one to easily coo at anything, not even mentally, Draco found that he couldn’t help the softening of his face and thoughts as he watched. He was enamoured, completely and utterly smitten, as he had been with his previous children, but this one was special, this one was his and though he would never, ever treat any of them differently, couldn’t treat them differently as he loved them all immensely, just knowing that this tiny newborn was his made everything different, though he wasn’t exactly sure why, the reason was on the edge of his mind, but looking at his newborn, he couldn’t bring himself to take his attention away from the baby for long.

There had been a time when he’d thought that perhaps it would never happen, as ridiculous as those thoughts had been, he had felt it all the same, now over three years after mating with Harry and several children later, he was finally holding his own blood child in his arms and he was elated.

Just one long cuddle, an hour or two and then he’d go back downstairs to hand the baby off to Max, who was going to do the next feed and change, and he’d sit down and play with Regan and Calix.

He could stare at his newborn for hours. He couldn’t help it really, he was just so in love with the baby in his arms and he shifted himself carefully into a more comfortable position, trying not to disturb the sleeping newborn, who shifted with a soft whine regardless of his efforts, but didn’t open the grey-blue eyes that Draco loved so very much. They were bluer than his own silver-grey eyes, but he loved them all the same.

His, as of yet, unnamed newborn wiggled in his arms again and Draco sighed. The baby was hungry and his peaceful cuddle was going to be cut short by the wails of a hungry baby very soon and Max would kill him if he hoarded off another feeding, it was as he angrily pointed out, just because this baby happened to be Draco’s, it didn’t mean that the rest of them didn’t want to be involved and he could understand where they were coming from, of course he could. When their identical twin girls had been born, he had practically snarled at anyone who had tried to take them from him, he’d wanted to feed and change them and bathe them all the time, but when it really came down to it, they had been Max’s daughters and Max had not once snapped at him or shouted that they were his and to hand them over, he had let anyone pick them up, he watched as others fed and changed them or dressed them and he was content to know that if he wanted a cuddle, he could have one.

He sighed as he realised that he _was_ acting differently with this baby and that wasn’t his intention, he loved all of his children, he was just a little…shocked maybe, that this particular baby was his own. So yes, he’d have this last cuddle, he had already committed the baby’s smell into his memory, and then he’d go down stairs and he’d hand the newborn off to Max. He’d prove to them all that he wasn’t just interested in his own children, that he hadn’t been using the other babies as replacements until he’d gotten his own. Not that they had accused him of such, but he worried that they did think that way about him, he was downright scared that they thought that of him and he wanted to change it, to prove wrong thoughts they may not even have had about him before anything was said and set in stone, he loved all of his children the same and he was going to prove it.

He had worried himself almost sick with thoughts that perhaps he really wouldn’t love them the same, but he could say now, with absolute certainty, as he held his newborn child in his arms, that he didn’t. He did not love this baby more than the others; he did not love them more than this baby. He loved all of them, every single last one of them, exactly the same and the elation he felt from that knowledge was going to keep him happy and jubilant for at least the next month.

As the baby wiggled a bit harder and a toothless mouth parted on a soft, hungry whine, Draco let out a deep exhale of air, smiling softly before kissing the baby gently and taking one last deep breath, pulling in the scent of his newborn who strangely enough smelt more of Nasta than anyone else, despite him not even being there all morning, but Draco rationalised that Nasta had been up half the night with the newborn and with Harry, who was finding it difficult to sleep with the pain he was in after birth.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up, stretching himself as much as he could with the baby in his arms before he left the bedroom and padded slowly, oh so carefully, down the staircase and into the living room.

 

“There you are! We thought you’d run away with the baby.” Max teased him with a laugh.

 

Draco smiled, but he took to heart the unintended warning in those words. He wouldn’t treat his children differently.

 

“No, just went for a bit of peace and quiet, I never get that anywhere around you.” He teased right back.

 

Max laughed happily, though he was surprised when Draco slipped the baby exceedingly carefully into his arms.

 

“What…?”

 

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that the next feed is yours! I fed the baby this morning, it’s your turn.” He said sternly, even as he sat himself down and tugged Calix over to his lap and squeezed him tight, peppering his face with kisses and grinning happily as he received a stream of giggles for it.

 

“No, I didn’t forget.”

 

“Good, make tea while you’re out there too.”

 

“Anything else I can get you, your majesty?”

 

Draco made a show of pondering about the question for a few moments. “No, just tea should be fine. I’m not all that hungry.”

 

Blaise burst into laughter opposite him and Draco gave him a wink with a grin. He played with a two year old Calix as he watched their other children toddle around, running unsteadily around the room with toys and balls and all manner of things that they probably shouldn’t have had. Braiden even had the controller remote for the television in his left hand.

He smiled at them all. He loved them, there was nothing else to it, he had helped raise every single one of them and he wanted the same for his baby, their children were so lucky to have a doting, devoted Mother in Harry and four, very protective, loving Fathers, he wouldn’t take that away from his own child by coveting the baby away from his own mates and trying to do everything himself, it wasn’t fair on his lovers and it wasn’t fair on his child.

 

“Love you.” A soft voice declared from behind his head just as a small hand touched his head, sleepy fingers slipping through the platinum blond hair.

 

“I love you too, Harry. You should be sleeping though, you need to rest.” Draco admonished.

 

“Am resting.” Harry huffed back with a soft snort.

 

“Then why are you awake?”

 

“Heard something about tea and I want one.”

 

Draco and Blaise looked at one another and then they were helpless to stop the laughter that rang freely through their home. Their toddlers joined in.

 

“Daga!”

 

“Eva sweetheart, I’ve told you, it’s pronounced Dada, why do you insist on calling me dagger?” Draco chastised gently as he sat the year old baby girl on his lap.

 

“I think she’s trying to tell you she wants you to get her a dagger.” Max said as he came in with a tray of beakers, sippy cups and four cups of tea.

 

“Where’s the baby?” Blaise asked before Draco could.

 

“In the kitchen bassinet, our little sunshine is out for the count. I have to hand it to you Draco, your baby is good as gold.” Max said with a wide grin. “We need more babies like that, Harry, have at him love, have some more Malfoy babies, because if we had a hundred like this one, I’d be a very happy man.”

 

Harry snorted again, not even opening his eyes, even as Regan clambered all over him.

 

“Regan, come here love, we can’t do that to Mummy.” Max chastised lightly as he picked him up and then set him on his feet, on the floor and handed him his sippy cup.

 

“The way I’m feeling right now we’re actually going to keep to the six week sex ban this time.” Harry told them as he turned over onto his side and cracked one eye open. “Too many back to back pregnancies and not enough time to recover between them. I hope that it takes ten years for my next heat to happen.”

 

“Even if it doesn’t, we will help you.” Max told him with a smile and a soft caress as he helped Harry sit up before handing him his tea.

 

“You can help by taking over the pregnancies and the births for a few years.” Harry complained good-naturedly.

 

“If I could, you know that we’d have absolutely no babies at all, love.” Max said with a grin.

 

Harry snorted yet again. “That’s the truth of it right there. Barbarians the lot of you.”

 

“Why am I a barbarian?” Draco demanded incredulously.

 

“Getting me pregnant, watching me suffer with said pregnancy, then not getting pregnant in my place, how dare you!”

 

“I don’t think the pain potion has entirely worn off.” Max said as he looked at Harry curiously, a grin threatening to break free. “Harry love, you know that we can’t get pregnant, we’re your dominants, it’s physically impossible, but of course, if we were able, we would take over in your place.”

 

“Liar!” Harry accused rightly as he sipped at his tea. “Easy to say it when you know it’ll never happen.” He continued, grumbling to himself under his breath. “Where’s my baby? I want my newborn here. I need to sort out names.”

 

Draco blanched in horror. “Harry, love…perhaps it might be best if you _didn’t_ name our child while still under the effects of the pain potion.”

 

“I’ll name my baby when I like!” Harry declared with a frown.

 

Draco looked pleadingly to Max, whose massive shoulders were shaking with suppressed laughs.

 

“It’s alright; I can almost guarantee that he will not remember any of this after another nap. He’s still quite out of it.” Max assured them. “He could call the baby Basildonna and it won’t be legal until he files it on the birth certificate.”

 

“What if he starts to associate that name to the baby though?” Draco asked weakly.

 

Max shrugged. “Then good luck taking the poor kid to school.”

 

Draco felt light headed and he all but fell on his cup of tea, drinking it down to steady himself.

 

“Please don’t call the baby Basildonna.” He pleaded with Harry, who was dozing into a potion induced sleep again.

 

“Baby…Basil.” Harry muttered as he drifted to sleep and Max and Blaise roared with laughter at his expense.

 

Draco just stared at Harry, who curled up under his blanket and fell into another deep sleep. He could not, _would not_ , let Harry call the baby, his baby, _any_ baby, Basil or Basildonna. Submissive naming rights be damned, he would fight Harry’s own Dracken side over it if he had to, he just prayed that Max was right and Harry remembered nothing of this, which included subconsciously, when he was weaned off of the strong pain potions. He hoped, he’d beg if he had to, that Harry gave their child a name to be proud of, one that they wouldn’t be ashamed of sharing when they were older.

Blaise went out into the kitchen with their empty cups and brought the newborn baby back with him, still wrapped securely in that knitted blanket.

 

“How was your baby born with grey-blue eyes yet all the others had baby blue?” Blaise asked.

 

Draco shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe because the grey is sort of lighter than the blue?”

 

“It’s just one of those things.” Max shrugged as he cuddled Braiden in his lap. “Not all babies are born with baby blue eyes and just because our newborn has grey-blue eyes at the moment doesn’t mean that won’t change. They could easily go baby blue in the next few days and then go back to grey-blue in a few months. Some babies are born with dark eyes, they go blue and then go back dark, it’s not unheard of.”

 

Draco nodded, but he steadfastly refused to allow Nasta near his newborn when he came home an hour later, stinking of dung and absolutely filthy. He dragged Nasta to the bathroom and he washed him himself, just in case his tired lover missed a spot which then touched one of their sweet children.

 

“I think I should come home like this more often.” Nasta all but purred.

 

“If you do I’ll start washing you down outside with the hose.” Draco threatened seriously.

 

Nasta just laughed deeply.

 

“I’m serious, it’s cold out there at the moment and I will keep you out there until every speck of grime has been washed away by the icy water, then when you get sick you’ll be confined to bed rest and then none of your germs will be near our children.”

 

Nasta shook his head as he helped Draco by scrubbing himself.

 

“I was just too cold, too tired to wash off at the reserve.” He told him softly. “I wanted to get home to you all and our new baby and a hot drink wouldn’t go amiss either. My insides feel frozen.”

 

“Are the dragons alright?” Draco asked curiously, watching Nasta closely. Usually the dragons were the first topic that Nasta spoke about when he came home from work until the four of them had heard every little thing the dragons had done from the moment Nasta arrived to the moment he was forced to come back home again. Nasta hadn’t even mentioned them and it was… _strange_ to say the least, out of character for Nasta and it worried him, so he asked.

 

“Seven of them will be fine with lots of care and medicine. We had to put two of them down to stop the sickness from spreading to the healthy dragons. They were too far gone for the medicines to be of any help.” Nasta said after a long pause, then after another silent moment, he buried his face into one hand and his shoulders started to shake as he cried.

 

Draco stared at him for a suspended moment where he mentally flailed a bit for what to do, then he let his heart take over and he yanked Nasta to his chest and cradled him there, holding him, murmuring softly to him, just nonsense, but he would never tell him to just get over it, he would never tell him that there would be other dragons or to grow up they were just animals or that everything would be alright, because it wouldn’t. He knew, they all knew, just how much those dragons meant to Nasta, they knew how much he loved them and they knew that he had dedicated his life to protecting and caring for them. From Nasta’s point of view, the death of two of them would be like watching two children that he had helped rear and protect all of their lives just up and die, and he wouldn’t get over it in a few mere hours and he wouldn’t get over it if it was just ignored or pushed to the side, he needed to let it all out and grieve for the two dragons he’d lost.

Draco stopped murmuring as Nasta stopped crying and he just knelt there, ignoring the pain in his knees from the hard tile floor, holding Nasta to his heart and stroking soft, damp skin and wet hair with his fingers.

 

“We will help you through this.” Draco told him seriously. “We’ll help you grieve, we’ll give you everything you want and need and we will see you through this dark time. You’ll never forget either of them, but though it doesn’t seem like it right now, you will get better, the pain will go away.”

 

“I feel ridiculous, crying like this.” Nasta said in a voice raspy from crying so hard. “They’re just dragons, but the reserve hasn’t had to put one of them down like this in years…the only deaths we’ve had were natural or from bull fights, we’ve never had a sickness just take them over like this.”

 

“They’re not just dragons Nasta.” Draco said firmly. “You loved them. You raised them, cared for them, loved them for years. A lot of things they might be, they’re just dragons to other people, but never to you and we love you for that Nas, so you do whatever you need to, to get through this tragedy, we will always be behind you to help you.”

 

“I love you.” Nasta told him thickly.

 

“Come on, let’s get you out and get you warm. You’ll put your fluffy pyjamas on, no arguments and you’ll sit down and cuddle with me while I make Max get you tea. He’s good for getting tea.”

 

Nasta laughed roughly at that as he allowed Draco to wrap him in a towel and rub him dry before helping him dress himself, even if he didn’t actually need the help. The thick, fleecy pyjamas that he only ever wore when he was sick made him feel overly warm, but as he couldn’t stop shivering he kept them on.

Draco pulled him down the stairs and into the living room and he watched as the grins slid from Max’s and Blaise’s faces.

 

“Are you sick?” Max demanded as he stood to press a rough palm to his forehead before cupping his cheeks and then his neck. “You don’t feel warmer than usual.”

 

“Go and make more tea Max, I’ll fill you in when Nasta is settled.” Draco ordered as he ushered Nasta onto the settee that wasn’t currently housing a drugged up, sleeping Harry.

 

Blaise stole the spot next to Nasta before Draco could and he cuddled up to Nasta and despite his larger size, he pulled Nasta to lean on him instead of where he would usually lean onto Nasta and he started murmuring softly in French, almost cooing to him.

 

“I’m not sick.” Nasta told him with a smile.

 

“Then why are you wearing your sick pyjamas?” Max asked seriously as he came back into the room with four cups of tea and a plate of biscuits.

 

“They’re my winter pyjamas, not my sick ones.” Nasta denied, even though he knew he only ever wore them when he was sick, so they had every reason to be worried over him.

 

“Nasta lost two dragons today. The reserve had to put them down to stop the sickness from spreading.” Draco informed them softly and respectfully, but straight to the point so the pain wasn’t prolonged for Nasta.

 

Blaise pulled Nasta tighter to him and Max gasped softly.

 

“Oh Nasta, why didn’t you say love?” Max said as he quickly put his tea tray down and hunched in front of him to hold his hands. “You know you can tell us anything and everything on your mind, we love you and of course we’re going to help you through this, how are you feeling?”

 

Nasta shrugged. “I’m better now; Draco had a talk with me upstairs that really helped. I’m just cold and nothing seems to help make it better.”

 

“Hence the fluffy pyjamas.” Max nodded with a smile and a pat to a solid thigh wrapped in soft, fluffy, fleecy material. “Okay, you stay here and drink your tea; I’m going to start dinner, any requests?”

 

Nasta shook his head.

 

“Not even garden salad?” Max teased.

 

Nasta smiled. “I’ll eat anything, but the warmer the better.”

 

“Comfort food it is, I’m thinking Shepard’s pie. It’s one of your favourites.”

 

Nasta smiled and snuggled into Blaise more, accepting his body warmth and the kiss that was lingeringly pressed to his temple. “I love you all.”

 

“I’m taking that as a yes.” Max declared happily. “Shepard’s pie for thirteen it is. Farren is going to be ecstatic; he’s never had Shepard’s pie before.”

 

“Can’t wait to see his face.” Harry mumbled from the cushion his face was buried in.

 

He twisted a little, just enough to free his face and he cracked open an eye to peer out at them all. He looked pointedly at the tray of tea on the table, which did not hold his tea cup.

 

“I’ll get you one now.” Max laughed as he bent to kiss Harry and stood back up to pet his hair before leaving the room.

 

“He pets me like…like a dog…again and he’ll be sleeping….sleeping outside.” Harry grumbled, ruining the threat by trying to talk through a massive yawn.

 

He pushed himself to sit up, grimacing heavily in pain as he did so.

 

“Go easy, Harry.” Nasta said concernedly.

 

Harry opened his eyes and looked at him happily.

 

“You’re home!” He cried out with a smile, before he seemed to take in what he was seeing and he frowned. “Why are you wearing your sick pyjamas? Are you ill?”

 

Nasta shook his head. “No. I’m okay.”

 

“I don’t believe you.”

 

Harry stood up with a grunt and toddled his way to the other settee worse than any of their actual toddlers and all but fell onto Nasta with a soft gasp.

 

“What did I tell you about moving?” Nasta demanded, very unimpressed with the display he’d just seen.

 

“I wanted to be near you.” Harry said as he curled up between Nasta’s legs and rested on his belly.

 

Nasta shook his head and petted Harry’s fluffy, absolute mess of hair. He had had a bitchy fit while pregnant and had missed a trim so it was longer than he usually wore it and it looked ten times worse than normal because of it.

 

“We had to put down two dragons.” Nasta told Harry softly.

 

Harry pulled back and fought off the grimace of pain it caused as he looked to Nasta.

 

“Nas, I’m so sorry, how are you feeling? I mean, I know you must be hurting, but have these bastards helped you, talked to you about it?”

 

Nasta nodded with a grin. “They have. Max is making one of my favourite meals, Blaise won’t let me go and Draco and I had a talk upstairs as he bathed me.”

 

Harry stopped glaring at Draco and Blaise and he nodded.

 

“If you ever need a cuddle, you’ll know exactly where I’ll be because I can’t move myself very far yet, so even if I wanted to I couldn’t get away from you.”

 

“Harry!” Draco said aghast, but Nasta just threw his head back and laughed.

 

“I’ll keep that in mind, Cariad.” He said with a smile, holding Harry tighter and drawing absent patterns onto his back.

 

“Why have you moved?” Max demanded as he came into the room with Harry’s royal blue and white bone china cup that had once been his Mother’s. “You had better have gotten someone to carry you, I told you that you couldn’t move for at least another day! You’ll be back on those pain potions; I swear I’ll keep you on them for the next week if I have to!”

 

“I don’t like them.” Harry pouted. “They made my head feel all cottony and my mouth goes drier than bone.”

 

“You say ridiculous things too.” Blaise told him with a sniff.

 

“Like what?” Harry asked curiously as he sipped on the tea that Max had handed to him.

 

“You told him you were going to sacrifice his books to the fire gods and dance naked around the flames as they burned to see in a good harvest.” Draco told him with a hidden grin at the memory.

 

Nasta, who hadn’t been there to hear it, laughed hysterically along with Max, who still found it funny.

 

“I don’t remember that.” Harry said with a frown.

 

“You also said that you wanted to call the baby Basil.”

 

“Basil? As in the herb basil?” Harry asked. “Of course I’m not going to call my sweet, beautiful baby Basil!”

 

“The original name was Basildonna.” Blaise informed him.

 

“It’s not going to be that either.” Harry said seriously.

 

“Have you thought of any names?” Draco asked, striving for nonchalance, but Harry still grinned at him.

 

“I might have, nothing set in stone, but I have a few ideas and no, I’m not sharing.”

 

Draco huffed and when his newborn started crying, he beat everyone to it by picking up the tiny baby and leaving the room. His little sweet child needed a nappy change.

 

“Don’t you worry darling, I won’t let your Mother name you something ridiculous, even if I have to pin him down and demand that he change his mind.” He told the baby firmly as he set that tiny, fragile body down on the changing table and started unwrapping all the layers so he could change the soiled nappy.

 

“I love you so much and you’ve brought me so much peace just by being born. Now we just need to bring some peace to your Daddy Nasta, but he’s a strong man, I’m sure he’ll be fine given some time and a lot of cuddles and comfort. We’ll make sure he’s alright so that he can look after you as well as the rest of us, because we love him and we need him.”

 

The baby on the changing table made a soft whine and slitted open grey-blue eyes, little hands jerking uncontrollably. Draco changed the baby quickly and efficiently that spoke of his years of practice before he wrapped his newborn back up, disposed of the nappy and climbed back onto the bed for another long cuddle.

 

“Everything is going to be fine and tomorrow, you get to meet your grandparents for the first time, they’re very excited about your arrival and they can’t wait to meet you, but for now, you have me and you have your Mother and your three other Daddies, Max, Blaise and Nasta. You’ll come to know us all and I hope you’ll love us as much as we love you, but know that we will always look out for you and protect you sweet child and there’s nothing you can do about that.”

 

Draco stayed on the bed for a further half an hour, stroking soft, pale cheeks and fervently wishing for that platinum blonde hair to grow so that he could brush it properly, before he went back downstairs to hand the baby to Blaise, whose turn it was to feed the softly whining baby, who was then put into the kitchen bassinet, fast asleep again, as they ate the dinner that Max had made for them with their children, who had progressed to being able to eat smaller sized portions of whatever they were having for dinner, which made meal times easier on Max.

It was still a messy affair though as food was smeared over cheeks and chins, into hair and dropped to the floor, but their children happily ate and once they were done and had been bathed and put to bed, the five of them cuddled up on the settee, Nasta in the middle this time, with their newborn baby cuddled in his arms.

Draco loved his family so very much and now that he had his own child, a peace the likes of which he’d never known before had settled over him. He’d never noticed before, never cared that he didn’t have his own child and when he’d thought of it, it was usually with the strong worry that he’d stop loving his other children, or that his love for them would pale with the birth of his own baby, those fears had been put to rest with certainty and now he was at peace. It was an amazing feeling and it left him ready and willing to help Nasta, who needed their comfort and support with a clear mind, for once not focusing on his own inner turmoil or fears. Perhaps that was why everything was different with this baby in particular. Having his own child was not any different to holding any other newborn of his in his arms, not in the sense of the love he felt for them, but it was different in the exhilarating freedom it had given him from his fears and the stability and security he felt at that left him able to focus on his family more than he’d been able to before.

As the newborn baby was passed back to him as Nasta went to use the bathroom, he found himself looking at the beautiful, ethereal face of his child and one thought and one thought only went through his mind, the fertility treatment had been completely and utterly worth it.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The information in this chapter is released before I wanted it to be because some of you just will not stop complaining. Of course Draco gets his own biological child, but if you’d actually leave me alone to write the story, you would have known why he hadn’t had one yet.  
> Out of the thirty-five babies I’ve currently created, Draco has six children, though let me guess, for some of you that’s not enough babies, am I right? Well it’s not changing; Draco will still have his children when I planned for him to have them.  
> If you want more information on the babies, then I have a full list of them and their birth dates on my Facebook page: 
> 
> https://www.facebook.com/notes/star-mass/babies-rise-of-the-drackens-scaled-bits/479748755446358/
> 
> Draco’s first baby, the baby in this chapter, is born in the year 2000, just one year away in the fic time line, just bear with me and exercise a little patience, it does happen, you just have to wait for it to come about. I have plans and story plots to do first, despite popular belief, this fic is not all about the babies.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this small chapter and I hope it helps, at least a little, in alleviating the anxious wait,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	36. Daddies Little Helpers

Daddies Little Helpers.

Max wondered how things had escalated this far in such a short amount of time. He’d been doing this for just an hour and a half and his kitchen was an absolute mess. Why had he thought it a good idea to make cakes with his kids?

Braiden giggled helplessly as he was stood on a chair up at the counter, beating the cake mixture with a big wooden spoon while Regan, also standing on a chair, was holding the bowl for him. He could barely move his stick like arms, but he was giving it a good go and enjoying it as he did so.

Tegan and Calix were happily decorating the last batch of cakes, making silly faces on them after Max, who was helping Leolin, smeared them with icing.

Farren was lining a new baking tray with colourful cupcake cases with a huge smile on his face.

There was flour everywhere, four eggs had been dropped on the floor from earlier, cake mix spattered the walls, counters, floor and the kids and there were sprinkles and cubes of fresh fruit everywhere as Tegan and Calix became enthusiastic with their decorating.

 

“Da.” Leolin said softly, patting his arm to gain his attention.

 

Max looked back down at his tiny boy and kissed him before holding a little hand and helping him spread some of the icing over the top of the little cupcake and passing it over to a waiting Calix.

 

“How are you doing Braiden?”

 

“It won’t mix!” He said breathless with his exertion and a little pout on his mouth.

 

“Leolin love, you do this one by yourself for me, I’ll be right back.”

 

Max went to Braiden and Regan and stood over them, taking the bowl and the wooden spoon and beating the mixture, his muscles bulging with how viciously he went at it, which made his two boys laugh as they watched him.

 

“I think this is done; now you remember how to put it into the cases?”

 

Farren thrust the ice cream scoop at him with a grin; the six year old was thoroughly enjoying the baking lessons.

 

“Good boy Farren, now let me get the next batch out of the oven; remember that you…”

 

“Do not touch the oven, ever!” Braiden finished with a serious nod.

 

“Good boy.” Max praised as he took the cakes from the oven and transferred them onto a wire cooling rack before taking the cool cakes over to Leolin, who was concentrating so hard on icing the cakes, little tongue peeking out and frown lines marring his little forehead. “How we doing buddy?”

 

“Da?” Leolin questioned, the six year old Faerie leaning back to show him his attempt. It was messy, uneven, blotchy and there wasn’t nearly enough icing on the cake, but Max grinned and patted Leolin’s back proudly regardless.

 

“That looks amazing Leolin!” He said enthusiastically. “Well done!”

 

The grin that Leolin gave him was worth the little white lie as his Faerie son clapped his hands together and passed the cake to Calix and picked up another one. Max oversaw this one and helped Leolin spread the icing onto the cake.

 

All six kids came to help with the decorating of the last batch of cakes and they finished just in time for Harry to come home from work, happy but glad to be home.

 

“Where are my sweet sons and my darling daughter?”

 

“Mummy!”

 

Of course, as soon as Harry came home he lost all six of his helpers.

 

“How are my big boys and girl?” Harry asked as he cradled them all in a group hug. “I see you’ve been making cakes, have you left one for me?”

 

All at once the kids rushed to grab ‘their’ cakes, the ones that they’d apparently decorated special, just for Harry. Max would never get over the sheer devoted love their kids had for Harry.

 

“These all look wonderful!” Harry praised happily. “I don’t know which one to have first, but I think I need a large cup of tea to go with them.”

 

“How was your day?” Max asked as he pulled Harry into a kiss.

 

“Hectic, but you know me, I enjoy hectic and chaotic.”

 

“You’re definitely a strange one.”

 

Harry laughed. “How was your day baking cakes?”

 

“Certainly eventful. They get messier every time, but they enjoy it, so I won’t complain all that much.”

 

“Where are the other kids?”

 

“Having story time with Daddy Draco.”

 

Harry smiled that gooey smile that he always got when he saw or heard of them being ‘good’ Dads. Max loved seeing it and it made him ache to give Harry more babies. Soon, Harry was having a heat period soon; he’d get his mate pregnant again and then he’d have more little helpers in the kitchen. Maybe this time he’d even get enough to help him clean up too, he thought as he looked around at the mess left behind with a sigh.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Nasta raked the grass to clear away the autumn leaves and he grinned as a pink cheeked, laughing boy ran past him, another little boy fast on his heels. The one behind tackled the first boy and they went sprawling into another pile of leaves that he’d just raked up.

He didn’t mind in the slightest as he watched Calix running to the pile, scooping up another armful of leaves and running to the compost bin they kept near Max’s greenhouse, warded so that any stray balls would not break the glass.

Even as he thought such a thing, a tennis ball went sailing towards the greenhouse and bounced off of the glass harmlessly and lay in the grass where Tegan slid in the muck to grab it before throwing it back to Regan, who threw it at Farren, who sent the ball blasting through the air and down the opposite end of the garden with his tennis racket, Lai and Evie giving chase to it.

 

“Oi! You two, stop it!” He said sternly as he looked at his identical twins wrestling on the ground. It had gone from playful to something more, as it always did with those two. “Eva, get off of your sister’s head!”

 

He sighed, dropped his rake and forcibly split the two girls up as they ignored him, they clashed so much because they were almost exactly alike, both stubborn and hard headed, both unwilling to give an inch. Nasta blamed Max for passing on his genes to them.

He hunched down and looked at the glaring, pouting girls, identical expressions on their faces.

 

“You do _not_ fight.” He told them firmly. “Fighting is against the house rules and the breaking of the house rules results in a time out. Now go and sit on the naughty bench and stay there until I come and get you.”

 

They knew enough, had been sent to the outside naughty benches often enough, that they knew to sit on separate benches and they even had their ‘own’ bench where they always sat. He watched them both to make sure they did as he’d asked, seeing them sitting down forlornly on separate benches at opposite sides of the garden, swinging their little feet as they watched their brothers and sisters playing, just waiting for him to come and tell them they could move and join in the games again.

He set his watch to go off in eight minutes and picked his rake back up and set to work. Calix and Braiden both helping by making a game out of dumping the leaves into the bin.

His three year old quadruplets ran past him, a football between their feet as they kicked it to one another and then away from all of them to chase it down again. He shook his head as he watched them with a grin.

 

“Dada Nas?” A tug at his shirt stopped his work yet again.

 

“What’s the matter Mollie, sweetheart?” He asked, shoving down the protective urges that wanted him to swaddle her up into his arms and protect her from anything and everything. He looked at her and he saw two phantom faces beside her. It was hard carrying on when he knew that there should have been three of them.

 

“I felled and skinned my knee.” The four year old sniffled, showing him a grass stained, grazed knee, thick, winter leggings pulled up to expose it.

 

“Oh baby girl.” He cooed, picking her up, setting her on his hip and taking her to the porch.

 

He sat Mollie on the table and unzipped the first aid kit that he’d brought out with him, just knowing that there would be a few injuries.

He cleaned the blood speckled graze with an alcohol wet wipe, making his daughter wince and cry out, before he smeared a salve over the graze and covered it over with a plaster, finally he bent down and kissed the plaster, making his girl giggle.

 

“Daddy!” She laughed at him.

 

“It has to be kissed better or it won’t start healing!” He exclaimed in shock.

 

Mollie shook her head at him, sending her short, black hair swinging over her tiny shoulders. Nasta would never get used to how small Mollie was and he held her tightly, her too small body making everyone who saw her think she was younger than she was and forced them to comment on how well she spoke for a two year old when in reality she was four and a half.

His watch beeped and he switched it off.

 

“Come on sweetheart, you know what I say, you can’t let a little scrape stop you from trying again. Off you go.”

 

Mollie gave him a sweet kiss, her almond shaped, indigo eyes wide and shinning with happiness as she bounded off again. He repressed the urge to run after her and wrap her up in cotton wool.

Instead he went to Eva and ran through what she had done wrong and why she had been put into time out. He got an apology from her and sent her off to play before doing the same with the younger twin.

He went back to work with a groan, only to realise that Braiden had taken over his job, the ten year old was struggling a bit with the rake, but he was doing well as Calix ran back and forth between the leaf pile and the compost bin, displaying the never ending energy of children. Taren had joined them and was racing with Calix to and from the compost bin, the both of them giggling.

 

“Thank you for helping me out Braiden.” He said seriously.

 

“That’s okay Dad!” Braiden said with a grin. He was going to be such a handsome man when he grew up.

 

“How are my favourite children?”

 

Nasta looked up as a heavily pregnant Harry stepped down the porch steps onto the grass. His heart went into his throat.

 

“Mummy!” Tegan put her hands on her hips, even as all the other children rushed to Harry to hug him. “You know not to go down stairs on your own when carrying a baby in you!”

 

“I’m fine sweetheart.” Harry replied with a soft smile as he hugged his children. “Your Dad Max has almost finished dinner, time for you all to go inside and wash up.”

 

“Don’t take my helpers from me!” Nasta complained with no heat as he went and kissed Harry gently amid giggles and ‘Ewws’ from their watching children.

 

“Looks like you’re almost done.” Harry replied with a grin. “Why are you little ragamuffins still here? Go and wash up for dinner!”

 

They all ran off and Harry allowed Nasta to help him up the porch steps and back into the house. A flick of his wand and the garden tidied itself up, the raked leaves went into the compost bin, the toys all went into the weatherproof toy chest they kept all the outdoor toys in, the bikes and trikes went into the garden shed along with the rake that Nasta had used, leaving the garden spotless. Why hadn’t he used magic to clean up the leaves in the first place? He thought it was important to teach his children the value of hard work and chores as well as earning their pocket money instead of just expecting it. Harry and Max completely agreed. Draco did not agree to anything that would see his children doing anything akin to working, but his argument had lost heat over the last few years. Blaise was somewhere in the middle, they were slowly winning him over.

Nasta grinned at his growing family, caressing Harry’s pregnant belly as he sat him down at the table for dinner. There was a mad rush as Max yelled through the house that dinner was on the table, just as he placed down the last plate and eighteen children all ran into the kitchen to sit down and dive into their meal.

 

“Hey! Wait just one minute.” Max shouted over the din. “Show me your hands.”

 

Eighteen pairs of hands were turned face up to show Max their washed and clean hands. He made a show of inspecting them before he nodded.

 

“Alright then, tuck in sweetlings.”

 

They all ate and Nasta watched Harry for any sign of sickness. He’d been queasy around food lately, despite being only a few months from birth, but he was eating fine as he held a conversation with a five and a half year old Xabiere and an almost five year old Mace. The two boys were excitedly relaying their ‘adventure’ from the garden.

Nasta smiled, he loved all of his family members and with more on the way, just the one this time, making baby number twenty-one, he couldn’t have been any happier than he was in that moment.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Draco wanted to rub his eyes wearily, but he had his hands full of a newborn baby, naked in the baby bath on the kitchen floor. It was early September and nine of their ten oldest children were gone, already in Hogwarts, they’d received the first owls that morning, letting them know that their soft, sweet baby Lai had ended up in Hufflepuff. He was…not disappointed, of course not, Hufflepuff was the perfect house for their Lai, he just didn’t relish the thought of telling his Father that yet another of their children had ended up in Hufflepuff. He’d thought his Father would have a heart attack when he’d been told that Braiden had ended up in Hufflepuff, to have a second child join the house…well he was worried for his Father’s heart health.

 

“Daddy, I help baff baby?” A four year old Luce asked, crawling forward on stick thin knees, hands already in the warm water to grab the soft cloth to help wash the newborn baby.

 

“Of course you can help me Luce.” He answered.

 

Of course he then had several cries and declarations of helping him bathe the new baby and he had hands everywhere, splashing water into the newborn’s eyes and face, making the poor baby boy cry out in misery.

 

“Okay, okay, stop. You can’t play with the new baby, you have to be very gentle and wash him carefully.” Draco told them. “Do not splash him or get water on his face.”

 

“How does he get his face clean then?” A six year old Sen asked him with a cocked head.

 

“You have to wash a baby’s face separately Senna, with cotton wool.” A nine year old Mace pointed out as he got a bottle of water from the fridge, twisted the top off and gulped it down.

 

Like Farren, he was a huge boy and though only nine and a half years old, he was already showing signs of losing his puppy fat to muscle. He enjoyed contact sports more than Farren had at his age and was already in a junior rugby team; they went to watch him play in matches every fourth Saturday.

He shook his head, sending droplets of sweat from his forehead everywhere and plastering his jet black hair to his face before he swiped it from jet black eyes.

 

“Do you feel better? How was practice?” Draco asked him.

 

His son grinned and nodded happily. “I had an amazing practice session! Dad Max said that I’m so good I could play rugby professionally!”

 

Draco grimaced. He didn’t know how he felt about having one of his sons playing Muggle sports professionally, but he forced a smile to appease Mace. He prayed that it was just a phase and didn’t last.

 

“I see you’re making short work of bathing Sully.” Max said as he came in and hung up the car keys on the magnetic hook attached to the fridge.

 

“That is not his name, stop calling him that!” Draco hissed.

 

His children giggled. “Baby Sully.” They cooed, very happy that the baby had been named by them, to a certain extent at least.

 

Draco growled and pulled his poor child from the torturous bath experience and wrapped him up in a soft, warm towel and cuddled him dry before layering him up with his clothes.

A ten year old Xabiere helped their eight year old quadruplets empty the bath into the kitchen sink as the younger children cleaned up the baby shampoo and the baby body wash into the baby wash box that was then put into the washed and dried baby bath that Xabiere then put back under the stairs where it was stored when not in use.

 

“Thank you all for helping me, I think you all deserve a star on your charts.” Draco declared.

 

His children cheered and rushed to the charts and Draco handed the newborn baby off to a watching, grinning Max, who took the baby and went into the living room to check on Harry, who was resting on the settee and Nasta, who was entertaining Leolin, their younger Faerie babies, Evie, Ser, Fee and Vie.

Draco made sure he put one star, in the children’s choice of colour, onto their charts and wrote why they were getting it underneath in pencil before he herded them out and took a moment to relax as he filled the kettle and set it to boil. He needed a nice cup of tea now to settle him down so he could take a moment to just breathe. He loved all of his children, but fuck they had a lot now, this new baby made twenty-eight, but there was so much love, so many good times, that he couldn’t ever imagine his life any other way, even when he cared to try.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

 Blaise was horrified to see the destruction of the upper play room. To keep the living room clean and mostly clear, they’d converted several bedrooms on the first floor into one large, huge indoor playroom for all of their children, sectioned out into three areas, one square section had a linoleum floor and was used mainly as a painting area, but also housed playdough, soft clay, glue and glitter and, when they had supervision, papier-mâché.

The square section next to it was a soft play area where everything, including the walls, were padded with foam and was where their younger children played while in this room, the older children were allowed to go into this section, but they were not allowed to be rough and they needed to always be aware of where the younger babies were.

The third and final section was the same size as the other two areas together and was carpeted and housed all sorts of toys from play kitchens, to dolls houses, an assortment of cars and trucks, action figures, doll pushchairs, building blocks and Legos, board games, an assortment of stuffed characters, toy broomsticks and toy wands. Their kids had it all and more and everything they owned had been pulled from the wall lined storage cupboards and the toy chests and strewn all over the floor.

 

“What have you done?” He asked. “I came up to tell you all to get ready for bed, but no. Now you will all help me put every single one of these toys away before you get changed for bed.” He told the room of children. “Come on, the quicker you get to it, the sooner you can go to bed.”

 

“But Dada, I tired.” Lore sniffled, rubbing little eyes with a fist.

 

“No, you helped make the mess, now you get to clean it up with everyone else.” Blaise said sternly.

 

“I didn’t even make this mess!” A sixteen year old Farren complained. “I’m only here because Mum told me to come up and find Sully.”

 

He indicated the twenty-one month old baby in his arms.

 

“Fine, take your brother to your Mum and then get changed for bed, the rest of you, get to cleaning, now.”

 

Blaise did not relish the cleaning, but Nasta told them to lead by example, so he was stuck helping them clean up as he listened to them cry and whine that they were tired and that they didn’t want to clean up and it wasn’t fair, even as they dragged their feet as they cleaned up.

 

“I was wondering what was taking so long.” Nasta said as he poked his head around the door. “What happened?”

 

“Daddy Nas, tired!” A six year old Lian cried out, brilliant green eyes flooded with tears making them immediately think of Harry crying. It was harder to deny a crying Lian than their other babies because their child was growing up to look like a carbon copy of Harry.

 

“You clean up this mess first.” Nasta said sternly. “You helped make it, now the quicker you do it, the sooner you’ll finish and you’ll all be tucked up in bed before you know it.”

 

“You should have seen it when I first came in here. They must have dragged out everything onto the floor and I mean everything.” Blaise said as their tired children went back to picking up toys and games.

 

“Looking at this, I can believe it. You did right making them pick it all up before sending them to bed.”

 

Blaise nodded, but he was very pleased with the reassurance. He was still a little lost sometimes when it came to discipline, being told that he was doing it right helped reinforce that he could do this and he was doing it right, it gave him the confidence to keep going and to keep making these decisions.

It took almost an hour before everything was picked up and put away and Blaise’s back was aching from how often he’d bent over to pick things up and his children had gotten more and more tired as the time passed.

Harry had come in and taken their younger children and put them to bed, including a four year old Lore, the almost six year old triplets and a six year old Lian. The eight year old twins Ser and Sen had begged and pleaded to go to bed too, but Harry had told them that they had to clean up first and left it at that.

 

“Right, let this be a lesson to you; do not make such a mess again in the future.” Blaise said once everything was clean. “If you’ve stopped playing with something, you put it back before getting out another toy. I don’t want to have to do this every single time I come to tell you that it’s bedtime.”

 

“Tell your Dad Blaise that you understand what he just said.” Nasta said sternly as their sniffling children just stood quietly, rubbing at a multitude of different shaped and coloured eyes.

 

Blaise sighed when they all huffed out that they understood and they wouldn’t make a mess again.

 

“Come on then, bed.” He told them as he grabbed the younger twins and escorted them to bed as Nasta rounded up the nine year old quadruplets, having to carry Sae, who was almost boneless with tiredness and was already half asleep on Nasta’s shoulder.

 

A sixteen year old Calix snickered at his younger siblings as he passed them on the landing. “I told you three hours ago that our Dads would be very unhappy with the mess you’d made.”

 

“Shut up Cal!” Ceri snapped, glaring at Calix.

 

“Don’t snap at me because you’ve missed your bedtime, it wasn’t me who made such a mess.” Calix said as he took Mollie’s hand when she went to hug him and tugged her down the hall, up the stairs and into her bedroom.

 

“Calix, is Daddy Nas and Daddy Blaise really angry?” She asked, confiding in her big brother.

 

“Nah, Momo, they’ll be fine as normal tomorrow morning.” Calix assured her as he helped her remove the braids from her hair, combing it out with his fingers.

 

“They just seemed really angry this time.” She said as she went into her en suite bathroom to change into her pyjamas.

 

“You know Ric was unwell last night Mollie, they’re just worried. Dad Nasta and Dad Draco were up all night watching over Ric and Mum was very upset. Dad Blaise had to go to work on next to no sleep and when he came home it was to find the mess in the play room, he was just grumpy, that’s all.” Calix said as she came back out.

 

Mollie nodded, a mite happier than she had been before and she allowed Calix to tuck her up, but when he turned to leave, she tugged on his sleeve making him sit on the side of her bed.

 

“What’s Hogwarts like?” She asked nervously.

 

Calix laughed. “You aren’t still worried are you? Hogwarts is wonderful Momo, like nothing else you’ve ever seen, not even the Muggle castles Dad Nasta took us to on day trips compares. Hogwarts is…its magical Mollie and you’ll fall in love as soon as you see it in two months.”

 

“What if I don’t make any friends?” She asked softly.

 

Calix smiled and bent to kiss his sister’s forehead.

 

“Of course you’ll make friends.” He told her. “You’re a lovely young girl Mollie, you’re kind, funny and courageous, the other firsties will flock to you.”

 

She giggled at him and Calix stood up. “Now get some sleep and stop worrying, it’s not even August yet, you have over a month to go before you have to worry about school and I’m seriously not looking forward to my N.E.W.T years.”

 

Mollie giggled again at him and turned on her side to snuggle into her bed. Calix shook his head before he left her bedroom, turning out the light before shutting her bedroom door softly.

 

“Is she alright?” His Dad Max asked as he came out of the identical girls’ room.

 

“She’s fine, Dad. Still worried about going to Hogwarts, about not making friends and such, but no matter what house she gets sorted into, she’ll have an older brother or sister to watch over her.”

 

“Have you done your homework?”

 

Calix winced at his Dad Draco’s voice from behind.

 

“I’ve only been home for a few days!” He complained.

 

“The more you do now, the less you have to do later.” His Dad Draco told him.

 

“I know, I know. Just don’t want to do it so soon after coming home.”

 

“Go and get it now and I’ll help you if you need it.”

 

Calix rushed to get his school books, if he had help then his homework would go twice as fast. He’d definitely learnt that over the years and now that the younger kids were in bed, there would be no distractions and all of his Dads and his Mum would help him and they were definitely not stupid. He could get all of his homework done and out of the way tonight and then he’d be free for the next several weeks before he had to go back to school.

He arrived in the living room to find his Mum rocking Ric gently, his sick baby sibling was sleeping restlessly, but three of his sac-siblings, Farren, Tegan and Regan, were spread out around the coffee table with their homework spread out in front of them and they were waiting for him, their quills poised and ready to write with the help of their parents. He joined them quickly and sat ready and waiting as his Dad Nasta sat forward and looked at them all.

 

“So, what are we doing first?” He asked them.

 

The four of them looked at one another and then grabbed their books. “History!” They all said together with maniacal grins.

 

Nasta chuckled along with them and he looked at the heading of their essay and mentally prepared himself to guide them through their homework without telling them any of the answers or dictating anything to them, encouraging them to debate with him and each other and to put their answers into their own words. He loved the summer holidays when his children came home, he loved helping them realise that they knew exactly how to do their assignments, that they could do it, that they were very smart, individual people and they had the knowledge to do all of their homework. He loved the look of accomplishment on their faces as they finally threw down their quills with a happy crow of ‘Done!’ stretching themselves from where they had all been hunched over the table for the last hour and a half.

Of course Draco snatched up their parchments, sat back in his chair and began reading them through as their sixteen year olds went to the kitchen to get drinks and snacks and cups of tea for their parents. He loved helping all of their children, but as he was handed a cup of tea just how he liked it, he loved having his own little helpers too.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This came to me a while ago, but I’ve only recently had the time to sit down and finish it, my self-imposed ban on working on The Rise of the Drackens is doing wonders for the Scaled Bits chapters I have stored up in my documents folder.  
> I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter and there will be another Scaled Bits chapter coming around soon, I’m also still hopeful about getting out something for Lycanthrope Factory and for Damaged Bodies, I’m sure that everything will be fine as long as I keep my focus away from The Rise of the Drackens for another few weeks.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	37. Sibling Rivalry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is for Allysha, one of the Facebook fans, who wanted to see the older children interacting with one another and their younger siblings.
> 
> \---------------------------------------------------------------------------- X
> 
> Story spans August 1st to August 14th 2013
> 
> Braiden – 15/16 years old.  
> Quintuplets – 15 years 7 months old.  
> Identical twins Eva and A – 14 years 6 months old.  
> Taren – 13 years 5 months old.  
> Lai – 12 years 9 months old  
> Xabiere – 11 years 5 months old  
> Fraternal twins Mace and Evie – 10 years 8 months old.  
> Mollie – 10 years 3 months old.  
> Quadruplets – Ceri, Jay, Ethan, Sae – 9 years 5 months old.  
> Fraternal twins Ser and Sen – 7 years 2 months old  
> Lian – 5 years 7 months old.  
> Fraternal Triplets Fee, Vie and Luce – 5 years old.  
> Lore – 3 years 9 months old.  
> Identical twins Ric and Lanie – 2 years 10 months old.  
> Sully – 10 months old.  
> Fraternal triplets – Lia, Nia and Van – 1 month old.
> 
> \--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Sibling Rivalry

 

Regan sighed as his golden sleep was ruined yet again by his newborn sister crying her heart out as she was carried past his bedroom door. Most other fifteen year olds would be able to sleep in until the early afternoon, he didn’t even have a choice, he was woken up by the crying of a newborn every time he came home.

He could rarely sleep in at Hogwarts, he had lessons or Quidditch practice, most students would put it off until they got home, his own best friend had told him that sleeping in was for the summer holidays, but with so many little kids running around it was impossible to sleep past seven in the morning.

Even as he lay in his bed, trying to cling desperately to sleep, he could hear Braiden’s rumbling voice from down the hall, his sleep disturbed too by a younger sibling who had gone into his room and jumped on him, even though the house rules stated that the younger kids weren’t allowed in their older siblings bedrooms unless invited in.

His bedroom door creaked open and Regan gave up his hope of sleeping for another few hours as the pad of little feet sounded across his carpet accompanied by little baby giggles. It could only be Lore or Lian and Regan readied himself as the miscreant shuffled in one spot, preparing to pounce and when they did pounce he held his arms up and out, catching his younger sibling and holding the little body away from his chest. It was Lian, his five year old sibling who looked so much like their Mother that Regan’s anger just vanished with an exasperated sigh.

 

“You know you’re not allowed in my room, Lian.” He said without any real anger.

 

“You can’t sleep all day ‘Egan.”

 

“No, but a few hours after the crack of dawn would help.” He groused, even as he swung himself out of his bed, stood up and stretched, his sibling still clinging to the front of his body like a baby monkey, arms securely around Regan’s neck and little knees pulled up to, near enough, underneath his armpits.

 

“I’m so sorry love!”

 

Regan looked up as his Mother poked his head around the door and glared at Lian.

 

“The little monster got away for just a minute. Lian, you leave your brother alone and go downstairs for breakfast.”

 

“It’s okay, Mum. Really.” He insisted as his one arm moved to support his little sibling’s bottom on automatic. Anything to stop his Mum looking so guilty.

 

“I know you like to sleep in.” His Mum argued. “You climb back into bed and I’ll keep them all downstairs for a few hours.”

 

He was never getting back to sleep, but just the knowledge that his Mum would keep everything quiet for him if he wanted it, that his Mum knew that he liked sleeping in; it just made everything better somehow. His parents knew him, knew who he was and what he liked, even though there were thirty-one of them now, he wasn’t forgotten.

 

“It’s okay, but if this happens again tomorrow I’m dangling whoever wakes me up out of the window.” He swore as seriously as he could manage.

 

His Mum grinned at him and Regan couldn’t help grinning back.

 

“I’ll tell your Dad to get your breakfast ready then; the bathroom will be free as soon as your Dad Draco wrestles Luce into some clothes. I’ll let him know to give you a knock.”

 

Regan shook his head as his Mum dragged Lian out of the room and shut the door behind them. Regan sat on his bed and yawned widely, stretching again. He lay back and tugged the leg part of his boxer shorts down, the only thing he’d worn to bed last night because of the August heat.

They were all excited and a little nervous, he knew logically that nothing bad was going to happen, he was a Ravenclaw for a reason, but in less than two weeks his older brother Braiden would be going through his Dracken inheritance. He wasn’t even a Dracken himself and he was feeling queasy over the thought of what would happen, after all his own sac-sibling Farren would be going through the same inheritance in just four months.

Their parents were insisting that it was nothing, that they would both sleep right through it if they cared to try, that it was a little messy, but there was no pain from the transformation. Their own Mum, who was tiny, had slept right the way through his transformation and had woken up the next morning as a Dracken without feeling a thing or waking up once in the night, but their Dad Max had been too excited to sleep and had actually missed his transformation even though he’d been awake as he too said that he’d felt absolutely no pain and there had been nothing to tell him or warn him that he was having the transformation or had been through it.

There would be a sharp jolt as they brought their wings out for the first time, their Dad Nasta insisted, but nothing more and nothing from the actual inheritance, they were already Drackens, he told them sternly, they’d been born Drackens, they were just fully mature at sixteen and thus could transform themselves into their Dracken forms and there was no pain with that, but still Regan was nervous for Braiden and Farren, he didn’t want his brothers to be scared, upset or hurt and then in just a year and a half the terror twins would be having their inheritance too, he really didn’t want to see his sisters hurt or scared.

A light tap on his bedroom door had him sitting up again and crossing to the hallway and opening his door.

 

“Your Mum said to give you a quiet knock to tell you the bathroom’s free.” His Dad Draco said as he hefted Luce over one of his broad shoulders.

 

Regan nodded and he slipped out of his room, thanking his Dad as he stole the bathroom for himself. He showered very quickly with tepid water to get the sweat from the night before off of his body. He hated the summer, absolutely _hated_ it, he was always hot and sticky and he had to take two almost cold showers a day just to feel clean and to keep him from feeling feverishly warm. He couldn’t wait for the winter.

He slid down the stairs after dressing in knee length shorts and a thin tee shirt, today was setting up to be as hot as yesterday, had he mentioned that he really hated the summer?

Someone threw an arm around him and Regan looked to his right and slightly down at his slightly younger brother Calix, who was grinning from ear to ear in that cute, boyish way he had that made girls swoon.

 

“You look grumpy; did you get woken up again?”

 

“Stop being an insufferable morning person.” Regan grunted.

 

“I can’t help it, I love the mornings!” Calix chirped happily.

 

“How are we related again?” Regan teased.

 

Calix laughed and punched his arm. “You don’t like mornings, you don’t like summer and you’re a Ravenclaw, you know, I have no idea how we’re related, maybe you’re adopted?”

 

Regan hissed as Calix ran off down another flight of stairs and down again into the kitchen, laughing all the way.

 

“Don’t listen to him; he’s only winding you up.”

 

Regan took a breath and nodded, turning to smile at Braiden, who was so handsome now that he was a few weeks away from sixteen. He had been quiet all summer, he’d finished with his Ravenclaw girlfriend, Rebecca, in January and he was still smarting over it. Braiden had confided in the five of them, him, Farren, Calix, Leolin and their sister Tegan, that Rebecca had wanted to move their relationship to the next level, which meant sex.

As a Dracken, Braiden had said no, that he wasn’t ready to do those sorts of things yet, though he’d told them with a shamed face that he had really, really wanted to just ignore the Dracken aspect of everything and just give into Rebecca.

They had been in his dorm room on his bed, kissing as usual, when she’d asked and Regan didn’t want to think of how much self-control it had taken his older brother to say no and stick to it in that moment.

Braiden threw an arm around his back as they carried on down the stairs to the kitchen, a peaceful silence between them until they reached the kitchen and the quiet peace was broken.

They found chairs and with a grin their Dad Max gave them a big breakfast and they just settled right in, it was noisy, but even the young kids knew that when it was meal times their bums were not to leave their chair until they were excused and their Dad Draco had drilled table manners into them from the moment they were able to sit up at a table properly, so meal times were never messy either.

Regan enjoyed meal times with his family, even if the absolutely huge table meant that he couldn’t easily speak to those sitting at the opposite end where there was room for a high chair or three, but as he, his sac-siblings, Braiden and the other older kids sat up one end and the little kids sat at the other, he didn’t lack for conversation.

 

“How is your work coming on Leolin?” Braiden asked with an indulgent smile at their oldest Faerie sibling.

 

Leolin shrugged moodily. “Fine. My tutors gave me so much summer homework; I’ll be fifty before I’ve finished it all!”

 

Regan couldn’t help but smile, Leolin was growing before their eyes, he’d shot up five inches between the Christmas holidays and the summer ones and it seemed like his mentality had skipped forward a whole two years as well, he understood a lot more and he could follow the thread of their conversations better than he could last year, he was so proud of Leolin and he did everything he could to help him through the struggle to gain just the slightest bit of independence. He still had his baby milk teeth and he was still shorter than they were by inches, but every little bit of independence Leolin had, he’d fought for and clawed out for himself through pain, sweat and hard work. They were all so very proud of him.

 

“We’ll help you.” Braiden assured him. “I’ve got a ton of homework too, I’m sure the Professors just like seeing us suffer as we drown in parchment and ink.”

 

Regan chuckled and hid his face as he cut up part of his omelette. His Dad Max had made it just how he liked them, three eggs, a bit of cheese, some sliced mushrooms and lots and lots of bacon. He loved his family.

 

“I say we throw the homework into our trunks and hide them so that we can go and play Quidditch outside.” Regan said mildly, but he couldn’t hold off the grin when his siblings all gaped at him incredulously.

 

“Check him! He must be ill.” Calix declared suddenly, loudly.

 

Tegan’s slim hand pressed against his forehead as she bent forward to check his temperature and she sighed dramatically.

 

“No fever, it must be a brain infection!” She told the others as she sat back in her chair.

 

“Hold him down! We need to operate.” Braiden said in his best Professor voice as he held up his dirty knife as Farren came and pinned his arms to his sides, even though Regan was already laughing too hard to get away.

 

“What _are_ you lot doing?” Their Dad Blaise asked in bemusement.

 

“Regan doesn’t want to do homework! He actually wants to go outside, in the _summer_ , to play instead of doing homework; I think he’s been swapped with a changeling.”

 

“Changelings swap with newborns.” Their Dad Nasta said with a smile and a shake of his head as he tried to spoon the last of some goopy, pale orange coloured porridge into Sully’s mouth.

 

“I don’t need to do any homework now, because I finished all of mine last night.” Regan took pride in telling them.

 

“You are such a Ravenclaw!” Calix whined, slamming his head down on the kitchen table.

 

“Well done Regan, love.”

 

Regan swelled with the praise from his parents and he grinned at his siblings as he was handed two Galleons for his efforts by their Mum and given a kiss to the cheek, even if he complained and wiped at his cheek to save face, he secretly enjoyed the attention and he rather thought that his parents knew that about him too, they had a way of making them all seem like they knew absolutely everything, even their deepest secrets, without any of them ever having to say anything.

 

“If you keep banging your head on the table then you’ll end up as an even bigger Gryffindor than you already are.” Their Dad Draco told Calix with a smirk as he passed them with several dirty bowls.

 

“Oi!” Their Mum called out with a playful glare. “What did you just say about Gryffindor?”

 

“Nothing, love.”

 

“That’s what I thought!”

 

That made them all giggle as their Mum and Dad shared a gooey eyed look across the kitchen. Dracken or not, Regan hoped that when he was older he found someone who he could love as much as his Mum and Dads loved one another after nearly seventeen years together, which reminded him that he needed to talk to his brothers and sisters about getting them their seventeenth anniversary present, it was a little soon, but it was better to have it and sorted than to leave it until the last minute. His Dad Blaise always told him proudly that that mentality was why he was in Ravenclaw, Regan liked to think it was because he was just more intelligent than his brothers and sisters. After all, he _had_ inherited his biological Father’s love of languages and he could pick them up as easily as if he’d been born speaking the language as his mother tongue and with his Dad to help him, he could now speak several different languages fluently and he was working on being able to write in them as well in his spare time. He definitely liked to think that he was a Ravenclaw because of his intelligence, not merely because he preferred to do things early instead of putting them off.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Tegan stared at herself in the mirror and brushed her hair back. She had had it cut last December in time for her birthday, but she hadn’t liked it at her shoulders, so she was growing it back out again, it was an inch below the tops of her shoulders now and she liked it at its current length, she didn’t like her hair being long, but she didn’t like it short either. Her Dad Max told her that she was fussy, her Dad Draco said that she had standards and liked looking nice and knew what she wanted, she agreed with her Dad Draco, naturally.

For the last couple of years she’d wanted her ears pierced, but her parents had steadfastly refused until she was sixteen. She didn’t see the big deal, they were her ears and she wanted to wear pretty earrings like her housemates and her friends, but her Dad Nasta especially wouldn’t budge.   

She sighed and played with her earlobes, they’d look so pretty with even just simple studs through them, she had been saving all of her pocket money ready to buy a few pairs of earrings when she finally got them done, she had five months to wait at the earliest and that was if her parents took her during the next winter holidays to get them done or she’d be waiting another year if they forced her to wait an additional six months until the summer.

She sighed and left her bedroom, bumping into her younger sisters in the hallway.

 

“What are you doing Tee?” Eva asked her curiously, her thick brown curls reaching her mid back. The younger twin was even worse as she hated having her hair cut, so her hair was down below her waist in thick, tight, ringlet curls.

 

There was a flash of jealousy over her twin sisters’ naturally curly hair and huge, bright blue eyes, but she stomped it down. She was fine how she was, she didn’t need curly hair or blue eyes to look pretty, her Dad Nasta said so and he never lied to her.

 

“I was going to find Mum and see if he’d let me get my ears pierced.” She said with a smile.

 

“You’d look gorgeous with pierced ears. I don’t think I’d want mine done, Eva likes to claw at my ears when I kick her arse.”

 

“You do not kick my arse, I kick yours!” Eva turned on her sister quick as a flash and the two fourteen year olds immediately started wrestling.

 

“Oi, will you two give it up already?!” Regan shouted as her own twin stormed down the hallway to break up the two girls.

 

He hefted Eva over his shoulder and she held the other one back with a smile at how fierce Regan looked when he caught any of their siblings fighting together, it was often the oldest identical twins found wrestling one another and tugging at hair somewhere in the house. The other twins rarely fought and the same was true of all of them, the quadruplets liked to have a go at one another every now and then, especially Ceri and Jay, but nothing to the calibre that the fourteen year old twins went at it.

 

“She started it.” Eva called out.

 

“You started it, Eva.” Tegan told her as they carried on down the stairs carefully.

 

“Did not.”

 

Tegan rolled her eyes; she would not be dragged into a childish blame game, she was far too composed and mature for that. It was almost time for their planned separation and it couldn’t come a minute too soon as the one would be taken to her tennis lesson and Eva would be going off for her ballet class. Tegan did not understand Eva’s obsession with dancing and the colour pink, she wondered how much of a proper little girl Eva would have been if she’d been a singleton and not a twin, especially with a twin who’s favourite colour was grey who enjoyed caking herself in mud and coming home covered in cuts and grazes from her tennis matches.

She left Regan to deal with the twin terrors and went hunting down her parents, she wanted her ears done and she wouldn’t let herself be distracted, she wanted them done this summer, not next and she always got her way when she put her mind to it.

 

“Tee!” A five year old Vee-vee barrelled into her legs, grinning up at her with bright white teeth. She petted the jet black hair and smiled softly.

 

“Where are you heading too?” She asked lightly.

 

Vie giggled. “Bathroom!”

 

“Off you go then. Be careful and don’t forget to wash your hands!” Tegan told the five year old and went into the living room, she grinned when she realised that only her Mum was in the room, her Dads were nowhere to be seen. It would be easier to work on them all separately instead of together.

 

She sat next to her Mum, who was playing a game with a ten month old Sully. They were both giggling, but she knew her Mum knew she was there and he was listening closely so he would catch anything she wanted to say.

 

“Mum.” She said, drawing the word out.

 

“Whatever it is, you can’t have it.” Her Mum said immediately.

 

“You don’t even know what it is!” Tegan denied furiously.

 

“I don’t need to, I know that tone and the answer is no.”

 

“I want my ears pierced, that’s all! Please Mum, I’m fifteen now, I’m not going to change my mind in just four months.”

 

“Then you can wait four more months.” Her Mum said with a look. “We’ve been through this before, sweetheart. Your Dads and I agreed that if our children wanted their ears pierced, they could decide for themselves…”

 

“I have decided!”

 

“Once they were sixteen.” Her Mum carried on with another hard look.

 

“It’s only four months away Mum, please! I did so well in school, you gave the others their gifts, all I want is my ears done.”

 

“Are we going to have this discussion again, Tegan?”

 

She blanched, hunched her shoulders up and turned to see her Dad Nasta by the door giving her a very unimpressed look; he looked stern and intimidating despite the month old baby he was carrying carefully.

 

“Please Daddy.” She tried. “I’m older now, I know what I want. I’ve wanted them done since I was nine! I’m sixteen in December, please. I did so well in school, it’s all I want, please Daddy.” She begged shamelessly.

 

She almost smiled when she saw the look her Mum and Dad shared. They were weakening, but grinning now would have her stubborn parents digging their heels in on principle, instead she settled for looking pleading and like she half expected to be told no, even though she’d steadfastly refused to pick another gift for getting five O’s and two EE’s on her end of year exams.

 

“She is almost sixteen.” Her Mum said softly.

 

“We all agreed that sixteen would be the minimum.” Her Dad said firmly as he placed the baby he had in his arms into the bassinet.

 

“Please Daddy. I won’t change my mind in just four months. I have the money all saved up to pay for the piercing and for the earrings, I just want to show off the gift I got for doing so well on my exams when I go back to school next month.”

 

She watched as her Dad rubbed at his forehead. He was only fifty-three, but he was already starting to go grey at his temples, she heard her Dad Max joke that it was having teenaged daughters, she didn’t believe it.

Her Dad sat down on the other side of her Mum and stroked Sully’s fluffy black hair as he snuggled into the chest of their Mother, tired out from their game. He still needed a mid-morning nap sometimes, especially if he’d been as active as he’d been this morning.

 

“Okay, we’ll all talk about it.” Her Dad said finally with a defeated sigh.

 

Tegan launched herself at her Dad and hugged him tightly, kissing him and she couldn’t stop grinning.

 

“Thank you Daddy, thank you!”

 

“I said we’d talk about it!” He called out after her in a desperate attempt to retain control, but Tegan knew she’d already won. She’d gotten exactly what she wanted, as always.

 

Her Dad Nasta was the hardest hurdle she had to face, her Dads Max and Blaise were push overs and her Dad Draco would cave as soon as she quivered her bottom lip, it was her Mum and Dad Nas that were the hard obstacles and she’d worn them down. Very, very soon she’d have her ears pierced and then she could buy all the pretty earrings that she’d been longing for, for years now.

 

“You finally got them to say yes, didn’t you?”

 

She turned and grinned at Calix.

 

“Yes, I finally got Mum and Dad Nasta to agree, they said they’d talk about it with our other Dads, but we both know that once Mum and Dad Nasta say yes, the others are push overs!” She said with a grin.

 

Calix threw an arm around her. “I told you didn’t I. You always get your way.”

 

“Of course I do, I’m not a Slytherin for nothing Calix.” She told him. “I know exactly how to get my own way.”

 

“You’re just spoilt.” Farren said from behind them as he stepped off the stairs, a nine year old Ethan thrown over his shoulder.

 

“I’m not spoilt, if I can get my own way and what I want from others, then I deserve to have it because I’ve earned it.”

 

“Slytherin mentality!” Calix burst out, making a rude hand sign at her by making a fist and pressing the tip of his thumb between his index and middle fingers.

 

“Don’t do that in front of Ethan!” She hissed out angrily.

 

“I’m warding off the evil Slytherin eye!” Calix insisted.

 

“What does it mean?” Their nine year old brother asked curiously, trying to replicate what Calix was doing. Farren shoved him back over his shoulder and pushed Calix hard with a hand on his forehead as he walked past so that their brother went stumbling back into the wall.

 

“If Mum caught you doing that you’d be grounded.” Farren told him.

 

“It would be your own fault too, Dad Nasta told you just last week about making obscene gestures.” Tegan told him before carrying on up the stairs to her bedroom.

 

It was still strange having her own room, one of the rooms with an en suite bathroom too, but she’d almost bitten her Mum’s hand off when it was offered to her last summer. She’d decorated it exactly how she liked, in a lovely, regal purple, the room only had her things inside it and it was always how she’d left it because no one else was allowed in her room. She loved having her own room exactly how she liked it, and she had her own bathroom too!

She was going to make a space on her dresser for where her new earrings were going to sit, she decided. She wanted to count out all the money she had managed to save up too, she wanted to be absolutely sure how much she had so she would be able to calculate how many pairs she’d be able to buy when she went to the shop to have her ears done. She was good at Arithmancy, so even if one pair was more expensive than the other, she’d be able to work out exactly how many pairs she could have, she couldn’t wait to go now and the sooner she had the procedure done, the happier she’d be. She could even wheedle a healing spell from her Dad Max too, that way she could start wearing her new pairs sooner. She was so excited.

She grabbed her money box that was made of silver and green tourmaline in the shape of a coiled snake. Her Granddad Lucius had gotten it for her when she’d made Slytherin, he’d been so proud of her.

She tipped its contents out onto her pale purple carpet, which contrasted nicely with her royal purple walls, and she separated all the coins out into piles of corresponding coins before she counted them all out carefully twice before she grinned. She had thirty-eight Galleons, one hundred and two Sickles and eighty-seven Knuts in her box, which converted to forty-four Galleons and three Sickles; she had more than enough to buy four or five pairs of gorgeous earrings with that amount, if her parents bought the actual piercing and her first set of earrings for her as a gift for passing all her exams, like she believed they would, that is.

A knock on her door had her looking up curiously.

 

“Come in!” She called out happily.

 

Her Dad Draco came in, still in his work robes from his morning at work, she’d missed him that morning, he’d been gone before any of them had gotten up, and he snorted when he saw what she was doing.

 

“I had a feeling you’d think you’d won.”

 

“I have though Daddy Draco.” She said slyly with a smirk that she’d learnt from watching him and her Granddad Lucius.

 

He shook his head when he saw it. “Your Dad Max is going to Diagon Alley in two days to pick up potion ingredients; you can go with him and get your ears pierced then. Bag up your coins, if you want to exchange them all for Galleons you only need to ask…”

 

“Will you Dad?”

 

Her Dad Draco sighed and rolled his eyes. “I suppose you deserve this for passing your exams, though you need to bring up your Transfiguration and Arithmancy marks…”

 

“I know, they’re difficult subjects though, I’m passing everything else.”

 

“I know darling, which is why we’re not on your back about it, but focus a little more on those two subjects and I’m sure you’ll get all O’s, you’re certainly smart enough.”

 

Tegan handed him the coins she wanted exchanged, watched as with a simple flick of his wand he had them counted and weighed and placed in his robe pocket before he handed her a fist full of Galleons, which she counted automatically.

 

“This is too much Dad, I only…”

 

“I know. Consider it a gift from me for being a true Slytherin and finally out foxing your Mum and Dad Nasta on this issue.”

 

Tegan laughed and hugged her Dad. “Thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome, love. Now keep this safe for a few more days and be good. If you’re naughty, then you’ll never get your ears pierced, your Mum and Dad Nasta will hold out until you’re over eighteen.”

 

“I’m always well behaved!” Tegan insisted. Her Dad just gave her a look with a smile. “I am! Most of the time anyway, but if I _am_ caught, then it’s Calix’s fault, or Farren’s, they’re such Gryffindors.”

 

That made her Dad laugh and he pulled her into a hug before he left her room with a reminder that lunch was going to be ready in an hour. Tegan smiled and put her money safe, two days, that’s all she had to wait and then she’d have what she’d wanted for seven years now. She always got what she wanted, that’s why she thrived in Slytherin.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Calix grinned as he ran around the garden in the sweltering sun with Xabiere. His little brother would be going to Hogwarts for the first time in September and Calix couldn’t wait to know what house Xabie would end up in, though he liked to think he knew his brother well enough to guess. He had a Sickle riding on his bet with his sac siblings and he was looking for revenge after he’d been beaten by Tegan last year when she’s betted right that Lai would end up in Hufflepuff.

The seven year old twins Ser and Sen ran up to join his game as he kicked a football as hard as he could at Xabiere, who caught it on his chest and booted it back hard.

Calix kicked the ball lighter at Ser, who headed it to Sen, who kneed it up, let it drop and then kicked it to Xabiere.

They carried this game on until a shout from the house had them looking up to see their Dad Max standing on the back porch decking, yelling for them to come in for lunch. Calix stormed the way up to the house and he was pleased to note that he was still faster than his younger siblings.

He rushed to the downstairs bathroom and washed his hands, helping Ser and Sen before drying them on the towel and rushing to the kitchen and sitting down in his place up the top of the table with his sac siblings, Braiden, the terror twins Accident and Emergency, Xabiere, Lai and Taren.

Calix groaned when he found out that lunch was baguettes. His was his favoured pastrami with a multitude of vegetables, including green, red, yellow and orange peppers, spring onion and cucumber, he loved that, he just did not like the steamed rice that went with it on the side, but everyone had the same, they all had a baguette just how they liked them, with a side of steamed vegetable, jasmine rice. There were small bowls of vegetables on the table, just in case they wanted a change or to try something new and Calix reached for the red onion, he wanted red onion today and he happily ate his baguette.

 

“When Dada Na come home?” Lore asked from his booster seat, the cream cheese from his half baguette already smeared over his cheeks.

 

“He’s at work right now Loren, sweetheart. He’ll be home in time to tuck you into bed.” Their Dad Blaise said calmly.

 

Calix went back to eating his baguette, but lunch was disturbed by one of the new babies and he watched as his Mum, who hadn’t even taken a bite of his own lunch yet, stood up to get the baby, who had spit up all over themselves and needed to be cleaned up.

 

“Eat your rice too, Calix.” His Mum told him as he walked past his chair with the newborn triplet on his shoulder. A first really as none of his parents had noticed that he’d never eaten it before and his Mum only noticed now because of the new baby. He groaned as his jig was up.

 

“I don’t like rice.”

 

“You eat curries happily enough.” His Dad Blaise pointed out.

 

“I like _that_ rice, I don’t like this rice.” He insisted.

 

“Why, what’s wrong with it?” His Dad Max asked, taking a forkful of the rice for himself and chewing it thoughtfully. “It’s how I always do it.”

 

“I’ve never liked it.”

 

“You’ve eaten it before.”

 

Calix shook his head hard. “No, I give it to Farren when you’re not looking. I don’t like it.”

 

“Why didn’t you say so before? I would have boiled you plain rice if I’d known you didn’t like jasmine rice.”

 

Calix looked at the table, his Dad sounded upset and he hated upsetting his parents more than anything.

 

“It’s only me that doesn’t like it though, so it’s just easier if you do just the one type, I’ve never eaten it and I’m fine.” He said.

 

“It’s not the point Calix, you should have said.” His Dad Blaise told him.

 

“It’s not a big deal!” He said, getting angry that he was upsetting them and upsetting himself in the process.

 

“Calm.” His Mum said softly, lightly touching the back of his neck as he walked back past him and Calix took in a deep breath and let out his anger. “We’re not upset because you’re not eating it Calix, we’re upset that we never noticed that you weren’t eating it or that you didn’t like it. We like knowing everything about you, about all of you and that we never noticed makes us feel bad, can you understand that?”

 

Calix nodded. He really could see how that would upset them. “I did hide it well and the baguette is really big too and I always fill it with everything, you got my base baguette done perfectly, you always do, but every time we this meal I like switching it up and stuffing it with all different vegetables and that fills me up a lot. I don’t mind giving my rice to Farren and he doesn’t mind either.”

 

Farren gave him a nudge and Calix chuckled, even as he picked up his baguette and tipped his untouched rice onto Farren’s plate.

His parents rolled their eyes and Calix smiled. He didn’t mind losing a bit of rice when he had a whole baguette to eat to himself that he’d stuffed with so many vegetables that it didn’t close up properly.

 

“Come and eat your own lunch Harry.”

 

Calix looked up at his Mum to see him fussing around the younger kids, helping them eat their half baguettes and helping to add different things that they wanted.

 

“Give me a minute.” His Mum replied as he helped little Fee arrange gem lettuce in the half baguette and added little slices of olive, spinach leaves and then chunks of tuna and a sprinkle of sweetcorn. “There!” He said happily as he kissed Fee and then went to finally start his own lunch where most of them were nearly done.

 

He loved his Mum so much; he always did everything for them, even if it meant going longer without his own lunch or stopping what he was doing to help them, even something important like the food shopping list and how much it would cost, his antenatal notes if he was pregnant or even his lesson structure for one of his classes. Selfless, that’s the word he was looking for, his Mum was always and unconsciously selfless and he couldn’t wait for Mother’s Day next year, he was already saving up his pocket money special, his Mum deserved it, just like he did every year.

 

“Calix, can you pass me the cucumber, please?”

 

Calix immediately looked for the bowl of sliced cucumber and then handed it over to Lai. Sweet, gorgeous, wonderful Lai who came to each and every one of them for morning and evening hugs still and would help anyone, even if it meant cutting off a hand to do it. Lai belonged in Hufflepuff.

 

“There you go honey.”

 

Lai frowned at him. “I told you not to call me honey, Calix. I don’t like it.”

 

“But you’re so sweet all the time, like honey.” Calix teased.

 

Lai rolled big blue eyes and turned away from him and went back to talking to Tegan and Eva. Calix grinned and slapped hands with Farren.

He wasn’t on dish duty today, so he went and made sure his Dad Blaise didn’t need any help with the younger kids, before he went into the lounge that was strictly for teenagers, the younger kids couldn’t get into this room, like the gym they had downstairs the handle was too high for them to reach.

His Dad Max had set up a pool table on one side of the room for them, there was a computer set up, but they were strictly monitored, had certain websites restricted and they had to tell their parents all their passwords and would then have their browsing history randomly checked every month to see what they’d gone on and who they were talking to and they had their own TV and game console set up, the worst was when they were grounded and restricted from this room when all the others were inside having fun and they had nothing else to do and couldn’t have any fun, he always felt so alone when that happened and he usually went and sulked in his bedroom until he wasn’t grounded anymore.

He sat on the beanbag chair that he loved and picked up a controller for the game console and turned on a game. They weren’t allowed any eighteen rated games, but they were allowed fifteen rate games and films, but they had to be kept in the top cupboard away from the younger teens, their parents were very strict about age appropriate games and films. Calix didn’t really mind, the games he was allowed to have were brilliant and he only needed them for the summer and that was if they weren’t going out for the day, just last week they’d gone to the beach for the entire day, from before sunrise to after sunset and the week before that they’d been taken to a dinosaur museum.

He loved dinosaurs still, he had ever since he was a toddler, so that trip had been amazing to him, he had a fossilised set of dinosaur teeth that he’d bought from the gift shop on his shelf in his room, more than ever he wanted to realise his dream of becoming an archaeologist, but he was worried what his parents would say, he worried that they’d think it was a waste of his magical education and Hogwarts wasn’t a cheap school to send a child, he knew that, he just really, really wanted to be an archaeologist, imagine if he actually discovered his own dinosaur! That would be the best thing to ever happen to him in his life, ever.

 

“Hey Cal, what are you playing?” Taren asked him as he hopped into the room and sat down on another beanbag chair and picking up a second controller.

 

“Come and see if you can beat me.” Calix challenged with a smile.

 

“Of course I will. I’m a Ravenclaw and you’re just a Gryffindor.”

 

“There’s no such thing as _just_ a Gryffindor!” Farren said as he joined them and sat behind them on the settee, a glass of fruit juice in his hand.

 

“Were you awake all night again? You’re getting bags under your eyes like Mum has when he’s just given birth.”

 

“Are you not sleeping?” Braiden asked concernedly as he came to sit with them, a baby in his arms.

 

“You’re not supposed to bring the little ones in here!” Calix said as he, perhaps a little foolishly, switched the TV off.

 

“She’s not going to care what’s on the TV Calix.” Braiden chuckled as he cradled the little girl gently. “She’s too little to even remember what happened this morning; she’s only a month old.”

 

“I know, I just don’t want to subconsciously scar her or something.” Calix said as he bent to kiss his sister’s cheek.

 

“How come you have her anyway?” Taren asked.

 

“Mum’s busy with Sully, Ric and Lanie, so I offered to look after Nia for a little while; she’s been fed, so it’s mostly just cuddling her so she can fall asleep, she’s a little sweetheart. I hope I have a baby as well behaved as she is.”

 

“I’m sure you will.” Calix said softly.

 

He did feel bad that Braiden and Farren were being forced almost into parenthood so quickly, but he also understood that they didn’t see it that way at all. He hadn’t understood when he’d been younger; he hadn’t understood how they could be anticipating having a family at sixteen, having their own baby, starting their own family. It seemed completely insane to him.

He couldn’t even imagine having a baby at the moment, he wanted to play Quidditch and have fun with his friends and focus on getting a job, the thought of which was scary enough without adding in finding a life partner, making a family and having a baby, but after talks with both Braiden and Farren, as well as the terror twins, none of them saw it that way, it was strange, creepy how they didn’t see it the same way he and Regan did or Tegan and Taren.

Xabiere, who was also a Dracken, just looked at them as if they’d grown another head when they brought up how strange it was to be looking forward to having a lover and a baby so soon. He told them that he had never thought about it and when he did think about it that he didn’t find anything wrong with it at all and that was from a boy who wasn’t even twelve yet!

He watched Braiden as he slipped an arm under Nia and settled her more comfortably, giving her eye to eye contact as he murmured to her quietly as he softly rocked to calm and sooth her, Calix believed that he was doing it unconsciously as he didn’t seem to realise that he was even moving. Braiden was going to be amazing with his own baby, Farren too. He was going to be awful, he just knew it, he’d grown up with babies all around him and toddlers and young kids and he was no nearer to being comfortable with them than he’d been when he was six. Maybe that was why he hadn’t been born a Dracken, because he just wasn’t cut out to be one.

Calix smiled as Nia burbled softly up at Braiden, before she yawned as wide as her tiny, pouted mouth could go, rubbing her hands and arms over her little face before she closed her eyes and settled down to sleep. He could see the appeal, he could see how cute they were, absolutely adorable even, but he couldn’t see himself with one.

He turned back to the TV, switched it back on and unpaused the game and sent a wink to Taren.

 

“Come on Tar, maybe this time you’ll actually win.”

 

“Don’t tease him Calix; you know he’s not going to win.” Farren laughed.

 

“I will win!” Taren hissed angrily as he mashed the control buttons.

 

Calix moved back out of Taren’s character’s reach and then calmly unleashed a combo move and emerged the victor and he grinned over to Taren who glared.

 

“Don’t say a word.” His thirteen year old brother pouted.

 

“But I thought you were going to win Taren? Where’s your Ravenclaw brain gone?”

 

“Not bullying a fellow Ravenclaw are you?”

 

Calix groaned when Regan came to join them and sat behind Taren.

 

“Pass that here Taren; the prestige of Ravenclaw has been put at stake, time to crush this puny Gryffindor.”

 

Taren laughed evilly and handed the controller over happily and Calix concentrated really hard, he hated playing Regan, he could never win. Regan always, _always_ , knew exactly when to block and when to use a devastating combo and he always won because of it.

An hour and eighteen losses later, Calix dropped his controller and covered his face as Regan did a victory dance, laughing with Taren. Damn Ravenclaws.

 

“You have disgraced the Gryffindor house.” Farren said, giving him a carefully controlled kick with his foot.

 

Calix pouted. “You play him then!”

 

“Nuh! I’m smart enough to know that I won’t win, that’s why I’m smarter than you.”

 

He huffed and turned the game off, putting the TV on instead, but there was nothing on, only game shows and daytime TV that they all hated, so he turned it off.

 

“Does Dad need a hand in the kitchen?” He asked, wondering out loud.

 

“I don’t think so.” Braiden said quietly with a shake of his head. “He’s got the little ones with him, trying to teach them to cook.

 

“So dinner’s going to be late and slightly burnt tonight then.” Regan said with a grin.

 

Calix laughed.

 

“He has the quadruplets with him, so probably.” Farren grinned.

 

“All four of them?” Calix asked. “In the kitchen at the same time? Who has a death wish and why are we their test subjects?”

 

They all laughed and Calix stood up and stretched.

 

“I suppose we’d better go and save Dad then, what sort of sons would we be if we left him on his own with those four?”

 

“Hem hem.” Braiden said, giving him a look and then looking down at the baby girl in his arms.

 

“Okay, okay, sons and lone daughter too young to actually do anything.” Calix corrected. “Now come on before they blow up the oven. I actually want to eat today.”

 

The five of them left the lounge and went downstairs; Braiden went into the living room to find their Mum with a sleeping Nia and Calix went into the kitchen to find his Dad Max trying to cook, supervise Sae at the counter and pull Jay off of Ceri while he was at it.

 

“Hey Dad, want a hand?”

 

“Please, I’ll give you anything you want, just help me!” His Dad said desperately as he held Ceri up in one hand and tugged Jay away with the other.

 

He and Farren immediately jumped in and started to help, wrangling in the nine year old quads. Calix stood behind Sae and helped his younger sibling peel potatoes, listening to innocent giggles as he did so. He could understand the appeal of having a baby, but right now, he wanted to be the one giggling along with them, he didn’t want to be the one rushing around, harried and stressed, like his Dad Max was.

So in short he didn’t mind that he wasn’t a Dracken, he didn’t want babies in his life just yet, but one day he was sure he would have one or two of them…when he was thirty, or maybe even forty.

Yes, forty sounded much better he thought as he watched Ethan tip over a bottle of olive oil which skidded off of the counter and smashed over his Dad’s shoes and splashed up his jeans. He couldn’t be dealing with babies in his life just yet, or any time soon for that matter.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Farren was feeling lazy, he couldn’t help it. He’d been up nearly all night talking to Muggle friends he had in the town that they lived in on his brand new laptop. He’d been woken at the break of dawn by a ten year old Mace, who wanted to go for a morning run with him. He was only allowed to go if Farren or one of the other older teenagers did and Farren was the one most likely to go as he liked keeping himself fit after the ‘fat’ issue last year.

Of course he had hissed and pushed and he had been a bastard to Mace in his state of overtiredness and he’d known it immediately after the words had left his mouth, which is why when Mace had ignored him and then begged, pleaded and persevered despite Farren’s snapped comments and vile mood, Farren had given in to him in the end, gotten up sluggishly with a long groan and changed into his running gear with bleary, half opened eyes, stumbling around his room with muttered curses.

He’d nodded to his Dad Nasta, who was up with the month old triplets and took Mace through his stretches before they’d spent half an hour running and talking together, watching as the sky line had gone from a grungy grey to a starburst of pinks, reds, blues and purples with the cloudless sunrise.

He did love spending this one on one time with Mace. His ten year old brother was almost a carbon copy of himself, a little more pumped up about exercise and more athletic and into sports, but still near enough the same and he loved that he had Mace to relate to about everything, he just really did not appreciate being pulled out of bed after only three hours’ sleep to go running before the sun had even come up, but that hadn’t actually been Mace’s fault but his own.

So he was hogging one whole settee as he flicked absently through the TV channels as the house fell silent around him, it would only last for a handful of hours, the same thing happened every day as the younger kids went down for their afternoon nap.

 

“Why are you so tired today, are you sick?” His Mum asked concernedly as he laid a small hand over his forehead.

 

Farren let him because he was just too tired to even argue or complain. He wasn’t sick, just tired. Stupid and tired. His Mum would figure it out, he always did.

 

“Hmm…you’re not warmer than usual. Late night?”

 

Farren nodded sleepily.

 

“Your new laptop?” He asked astutely with a stern look, but a smile was playing around his lips.

 

Farren nodded again. He didn’t regret the gift he’d chosen when he’d come home with seven O’s for the year. He had been so surprised when the owl had brought his end of year exam results, he’d thought he’d picked up Regan’s results by mistake, but his slightly younger brother had gotten seven O’s as well and the results really were his own. His parents had been so pleased with him and he swore he would keep up his studies this year now that he was going to be taking his O.W.L examinations next year. He would pass with seven O’s again; he’d make sure of it.

 

“I just love it so much, thank you for getting it for me.”

 

“Hey, you deserved it after your brilliant marks in your exams; you just make sure you do as well next year too.” His Mum told him, bending and giving his forehead a kiss. He scowled, but he couldn’t drag up enough energy to even wipe away the wet spot, he didn’t much care anyway, he’d long since gotten over the childish thoughts of cooties and ‘kisses melt your skin’ playground taunts.

 

Farren found a movie to watch and he settled down to watch it as his Mum used magic to clean up the room around him. It was done and his Mum was gone within five minutes, leaving him to watch his film, head propped up on a hand.

He stifled a yawn, laying down more comfortably and before he even knew what was happening, he had a tiny body crawling all over him, giggling, hands and knees digging in everywhere.

He reached up and tugged the little body down into his arms and pretended to snore loudly into a little ear, amid giggles and shrieks. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep, let alone when exactly it had happened.

 

“Farrah, Dada Ma says it time for dinner, so you hafta ‘ake up.”

 

Farren sighed; he only had one sibling who called him Farrah. “I’m up Lore.” He insisted as he sat up, his three year old sibling coming with him, landing in his lap with a giggle.

 

“Lore want be up high, Farrah!”

 

Farren groaned, but he dutifully bent forward and let Lore climb up his back, skinny legs popping over his shoulders before he sat back up and then, after making sure he had a firm grip on Lore’s legs, he stood to the joyous screeches of a three year old getting exactly what they wanted.

Farren made sure that he ducked under the lintel of the door so he didn’t knock Lore’s head before he made the short walk to the kitchen, his baby sibling shrieking all the way and gripping his hair a little too tightly, but he didn’t mind.

 

“Oh, Loren!” Their Mum sighed. “I was just about to come and get you, Farren.”

 

“It’s okay, I think I’ve broken a couple of ribs from having knobbly knees stabbed into my side, but other than that, I’ll survive.”

 

“I no have knobby knees!” Lore said from up on his shoulders, Farren could almost hear the pout, but he couldn’t help laughing at Loren’s baby slip of the tongue, he and his teenaged siblings laughed as he pulled Lore down from his shoulders and gave that little pouted mouth a kiss. “No kiss!” Loren insisted, kicking stick like legs angrily.

 

Farren sat his almost four year old sibling down and went to sit with his brothers, ruffling Leolin’s hair as he passed him and sat down in the chair at the end of the table, the seat he always took because he really needed the elbow room with how big he was.  

After dinner he helped his Mum bathe the new babies and handed the one off to Braiden for a feed, he knew that he needed to be more used to babies and doing everything for them, which is why his Mum and Dads let him and Braiden help so much, because in just a year he could have his own baby and then he really would be on his own. It was better to know now when he had his parents to correct him and watch him than to flounder around with his own baby and in front of his new mate.

He was almost certain that he was a dominant Dracken, but there was no way he was going to take the risk, but if he did turn out to be a submissive then he’d be the tallest, broadest, most muscular fucking submissive in the history of Drackens and he’d curse his fate until the day he died, but he still wouldn’t take the risk. Besides Braiden needed the moral support of knowing his younger brother wasn’t out having sex while he was too afraid to, it might be just enough peer pressure to tip Braiden over and then if he was a submissive, his life would be ruined, Farren wouldn’t do that to his own brother.

 

“Farren, will you teach me how to box?” His ten year old sister Mollie asked him quietly as he was taking the dried dishes from Eva and stacking them in the cupboard.

 

“Why do you want to know how to box?” He asked her curiously and with a sharpness that he tried to keep hidden lest he frighten her off.

 

She shrugged tiny shoulders and frowned. “I just want to know how.”

 

“You’re not being bullied are you?” He demanded, a protective, burning inferno of rage welling up inside of him at the thought of any single one of his brothers or sisters being hurt, taunted or bullied.

 

“No!” She assured him quickly. “I just want to know how, will you teach me?”

 

He wasn’t completely sold, she looked shifty to him and he didn’t need to be a Ravenclaw like Regan was to be able to see it. He nodded. “Fine, let me sort this out and I’ll teach you some basic moves, wait for me in the gym.”

 

“You’re the best Farren!” She declared as she wrapped her arms around his chest in a tight hug before skipping off.

 

If she wouldn’t tell him if she was being bullied or not, then he was damn well going to teach her enough to defend herself if she needed it, hopefully after she kicked the arse of whoever it was causing her to want to learn boxing all of a sudden, then the bullying would come out and it would be stopped in its tracks and the idiot who thought it was a good idea to go after one of his brothers or sisters would be punished.

No little sister of his was going to be attacked or hurt while he was around, even if it meant teaching her how to defend herself until he found out who it was that was distressing her so much so that he could pummel the shit out of them for it.

His fist tightened and he growled softly before breaking off the noise with an embarrassed glance around to make sure no one had noticed. He’d been growling off and on for the last few weeks, he’d asked his Dad Nasta, who said it was normal and a sign of his approaching Dracken inheritance but he still didn’t want his brothers or sisters to hear him growling like the tigers they’d seen in the zoo.

He sorted out the plates, cleaned up the countertops, picked up Eva and dropped her into the main living room to prevent an argument between her and her twin, again, before he went to the home gym at the back of the house, opening the very high handle near the top of the door which prevented the little kids from getting inside the room with the equipment and he closed it after himself.

Mollie was in the middle of the sparring mats, waiting for him, looking around at the machines curiously. She’d had no reason to come in here before; Farren would have liked it to have remained that way.

It wasn’t a proper gym by any stretch of the imagination; there was a treadmill, an exercise bike, one punching bag, one weight machine that was his Dad Max’s and an open space in the middle that was padded with mats for stretching and sparing. The nursery that adjoined to his parents’ bedroom was bigger than this room, but it was big enough to show Mollie a few moves to defend herself.

 

“Right, what do you want to learn Mollie?”

 

“Boxing.” She said with a nod, her short black hair bouncing with the movement.

 

“Why boxing?” He asked.

 

She bit her lip and she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

 

“You want to know how to hit someone, don’t you?”

 

She looked at him then and nodded hesitantly.

 

“I want to know how to hit them properly, not just a girl hit.” She told him seriously.

 

He almost laughed, but he controlled himself and just nodded instead. He stood behind her and raised her arms and formed up her fist properly, telling her how to correct her stance and how to punch out from the hips.

 

“I know it feels awkward at first, but if you swivel your hips then you get more power behind the punch.”

 

“So, like this?” She asked as she demonstrated.

 

“Yes, like that. Now you’ll want to aim for the stomach. Normally it’s for the head, but I don’t think you’ll reach, especially not if you’re going for a powerful, from the hip shot, so the stomach is the next best target, you’re not aiming to kill anyone.” He explained seriously. “Hit me.”

 

“I’m not going to hit you!” She said aghast.

 

“Mollie, you won’t hurt me.” He said with a laugh as he got himself into position opposite her. “You’re just practicing. Now hit me, as hard as you can to see if you can do it properly.”

 

Mollie looked a bit concerned, but she got into position like he’d showed her, a little stiffly and robotically, but she’d learn more through practice now, and she twisted at the hips and drove her tiny fist into his belly.

Farren hunched over as the breath was knocked out of him and he controlled his body to recover faster as Mollie squeaked around him, afraid of what she’d done.

It took long minutes before he got his breath back and he was able to stand up straight again. He clapped her on the back and grinned.

 

“Good girl.” He praised. “You do that to anyone who’s bothering you and they’ll leave you alone, they won’t know how to recover as quickly as me, so they’ll likely just drop to the floor and wheeze.”

 

“I did it right?” She asked shocked, her face lighting up.

 

“Exactly right, now go get ready for bed.” He said as he rubbed his belly lightly.

 

“Thank you for helping me Farren.”

 

“Anytime kid, now get.”

 

Farren left the gym, closing the door tight behind him and Mollie and he went into the living room while she skipped off up the stairs to her bedroom.

 

“I was wondering where you and Mollie had gone. It’s almost her bedtime.” His Mum said. “Is everything okay?”

 

“I think Mollie’s being bullied.” He said without preamble.

 

“Why do you think that?” His Dad Draco asked immediately, the same fierce protectiveness shining in his silver eyes.

 

“Normally I wouldn’t break the sibling secrecy code, but I’m worried. She came and asked me to teach her how to box, specifically how to hit someone. I know she only has a year left until she’s in Hogwarts, but I don’t want her to have to put up with bullies for any length of time, perhaps you should ask her teachers about anything they might have seen?”

 

“As soon as the school opens in September I’ll phone them.” His Dad Nasta said seriously. “We won’t tell her that you told us, so we don’t break your sibling secrecy code, but I will be speaking to her.”

 

Farren nodded. “That’s all I wanted.”

 

“Get yourself to bed too, Farren, you need the sleep and no staying awake to stupid O’clock tonight.” His Mum said sternly.

 

Farren grinned. “I have a feeling that as soon as I get upstairs I’ll be fast asleep, Mum.” He swore.

 

“You make sure that you are.”

 

Farren left the room laughing. He came across Taren on the stairs and he grabbed his brother’s ankle and dragged him backwards.

 

“Oi! You won’t be bigger than me forever!” His thirteen year old brother told him with a scowl.

 

Farren laughed harder at that. “Oh I think I will squirt! Get to bed; you need your baby sleep.”

 

Taren fluffed up angrily and headed down the opposite hallway.

 

“Just you wait, me and Regan will have you, we’re not Ravenclaws for nothing!”

 

Farren shook his head. “I’m a Gryffindor Tar, I eat you little birdies for breakfast.”

 

He set a trap up in front of his door, just in case his two Ravenclaw brothers did try something while he was asleep before he changed and climbed into bed. The urge to turn on his brand new laptop was almost unbearable, especially as it was looking at him from his desk under the bedroom window, but his Mum was right, he needed some sleep after having next to none last night, because the chances that he was woken up at dawn again tomorrow was very high, which is why he was going to bed so early, he wanted at least nine hours sleep as a minimum before he had to deal with what tomorrow brought. At least Mace wouldn’t wake him up before dawn for another run; they never went running on consecutive days, he thanked Merlin for that.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Leolin scowled again at the homework that he was struggling with. He tried to think about it, tried everything he could to work out what the names of those moons were, but he just couldn’t figure it out, his mind had gone blank and he couldn’t remember anything and that made him feel stupid and useless, which made him angry.

In a fit of rage he stood up and threw the chair he’d been sat on at the wall. He wasn’t physically strong enough to even break the damned chair and the wall was fine too, not even a scuff mark and that upset him even more. He went to his knees and screamed in rage into his hands.

His door slammed open against the wall and he heard someone sigh. Someone sat on the floor next to him and an arm went around his waist, but he didn’t want to move his face from his hands, he was crying with temper again.

 

“Come on Leolin, what’s the matter?” His big brother Braiden asked him softly.

 

“Stupid.” He said sadly, unable to get out a full sentence and that made him feel even worse.

 

“No you’re not. I take it you were doing the work your tutors set you?”

 

Leolin nodded into his hands.

 

“Leolin, I’ve told you, if your work doesn’t challenge you then there’s no point to doing it. We’d never get any better or progress with it, it has to make us think or there’s no point to it. It would be too easy to do work we already knew, but you’re not stupid because you can’t do it, you just need to take a break and ask for some help. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help if you need it.”

 

“I just…I feel so stupid because I can’t do it Braiden!” Leolin said as he turned to bury his face against his older brother’s shoulder.

 

Braiden chuckled. “Leolin, remember this time last year, when you were still having problems speaking and understanding sentences and certain concepts? You’re doing so well, every month Mum owls me with how well you’re doing and the list of your achievements grows longer and longer. You’re getting older now Leolin and your brain development and physicality is rushing on fast forward to catch you up to your actual age, there are bound to be times when that speed is going to cause your body to hurt or where it’s just too much for your brain to handle and it goes blank for a bit.”

 

Leolin actually felt better for hearing that and he pulled back to smile at Braiden.

 

“Thank you.” He said softly.

 

Braiden huffed and ruffled his hair. “Come on, let’s see what you were stuck on and do it together…actually, you fix up your room and I’ll go round up the others and we’ll all help you, we haven’t had a study session in a while.”

 

“Bring snacks!” Leolin called out after him as he rubbed his face dry of tears and went to pick up his chair and tuck it back under his desk before grabbing his books and setting them all up on the floor.

 

Farren arrived first and he tugged him into a rough hug. Farren was always too rough, but Leolin didn’t mind too much anymore, he knew now that he was older and could understand more that Farren couldn’t always help it and that he never meant to hurt anyone.

 

“Braiden said you were having problems with your homework again, you know you only need to ask us and we’ll be right here to help you.”

 

“I know, I just got angry before actually thinking.”

 

“Ah, I know that feeling. I usually hit Calix afterward because he’s more than likely the source.”

 

Leolin couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped. Farren chuckled and pulled him into another hug.

 

“What’s this about you not asking for help?” Their sister Tegan demanded as she stormed into the room, Regan just behind her.

 

“I got angry.” He said softly, ducking his head in shame.

 

“Oh Leo, you don’t get angry honey, you come and get us.” Tegan said as she kissed his forehead and sat down in their study circle.

 

Leolin scrubbed his forehead with his sleeve, a scowl on his face at the sister he’d shared a sac with.

 

“I don’t like being a bother.” He said.

 

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Calix told him as he came into the room with six bottles of water in his arms. “We like helping you, it beats the hell out of playing ‘house’ or ‘dress up’ with the little kids.”

 

Calix dropped the bottles onto the floor and then fell down, groaning happily as he stretched out on Leolin’s floor. Leolin couldn’t help the small giggle that came out at his brother’s actions. He’d been trying to stop giggling, trying to control it into a more masculine laugh or chuckle like his brothers, but he couldn’t always help it, especially if he was actually amused, but his older siblings didn’t care, they always smiled when they heard him giggling.

Braiden came in with an armful of snacks, from savoury mini crackers, to biscuits and a piece of fruit each. He’d obviously been caught by their Dad Nasta.

 

“Right, come on then Leolin, what are we tackling first.”

 

“This!” Leolin said as he thrust the homework that had caused his temper tantrum in the first place at his older brother.

 

Braiden read it over and he groaned. “Here Tegan, this one’s for you.”

 

“What is it?” Tegan asked as she took the work and read the top, a wide, evil grin split her face. “Astronomy? Oh Leolin, you know how much I love Astronomy, you should have come straight to me. Come on, let’s get to it, pick up your pencil.”

 

Leolin was so happy when all of his work was done, in a way he had understood it too, and he could take his books and worksheets to his Dad Nasta to read through, even though he had just come home from work he’d wanted to do it then and there.

He hovered around his Dad, nervous and worried that maybe he hadn’t done as well as he thought he had or as well as he should have done or he worried that he might have left something his siblings had said out on his work, but when he was done his Dad looked so happy with him and he gave him a big hug and a kiss and promised him he could pick out any gift he wanted, just like the others, and he could have it for doing so well with all of his work.

He was so happy as he was praised by all of his parents and his Mum gave him the special grin that he loved seeing and pulled him into a tight, long cuddle and he felt so clever and like he could do absolutely anything he wanted to.

 

“Mummy, you smell like baby sick.” He said confusedly as he pulled back from the cuddle.

 

His Dads all started roaring with laughter and his Mum gave them all a glare.

 

“I know sweetheart, in fact, I was just going to go and have a nice long bath because your Dads all agreed to look after the younger babies to give me a night off for a change.”

 

His Dads all stopped laughing and looked horrified as his Mum gave him a final kiss and then left. He was confused and didn’t know what had just happened, so he left too, his books and worksheets in his arms and he made sure to take it all back upstairs to put it safe in the trunk he had gotten when his sac siblings had gotten theirs ready for Hogwarts to keep all of his school things safe in his room. He had been so happy to get a trunk with his brothers and sister, even though he wasn’t going to Hogwarts with them, he hadn’t felt so left out when he’d gotten all the things they had, the only difference had been he didn’t need to get uniform robes like they had, his Dad Draco had taken him to get ice cream instead.

 

“Leo!”

 

Leolin smiled as his little sibling called out to him.

 

“Hi, Lian.” He said with a smile, hugging the little body gently while keeping hold of his books.

 

“Ceri’s picking on me, Leo!” Lian told him with a sniffle.

 

Leolin frowned. He knew he lashed out at his brothers and sisters when he was feeling frustrated at his own incapability’s, but he never did it purposefully and he always felt bad and said sorry afterwards, once he’d calmed down, but he didn’t like hearing that Ceri was picking on Lian, Ceri was older and should know better than to pick on the younger kids.

 

“Hold on, come with me.” Leolin told Lian as he headed into his room and put his work safe before he took Lian’s hand and went to the quadruplets’ room that the four of them shared.

 

He opened the door and found Ceri and Jay laughing together, Lian made a soft noise and stood more behind Leolin. That made him angry. To think that one of his brothers or sisters was afraid of an older sibling made him angry.

 

“Why are you bullying your own sibling?” He demanded, stopping Ceri and Jay in mid laugh.

 

They turned to look at him and he glared at them, watching as they went quiet and shrunk back.

 

“You do not pick on your own brothers and sisters! We’re a family, family is the one thing we can all count on for everything, we shouldn’t be afraid of each other!” He hissed at the both of them, but mostly to Ceri. “You do not make the little kids cry and you don’t bully them, you’re older than them, you should be helping them, teaching them and looking after them, like we did for you, not making them feel bad and making them cry!”

 

“They did what?”

 

Leolin looked over his shoulder to see Farren stood just behind him. Ceri and Jay’s faces drained of blood when Farren appeared at his shoulder and picked Lian up and cradled their younger sibling to his chest, Lian gripping his shoulders as Farren wasn’t wearing a shirt and he was covered in sweat and his muscles were bulging again. He’d been doing sports or he’d just been working out in the gym and he must have been heading to the bathroom for a shower when he’d overheard them.

 

“I’ve sorted it, haven’t I Ceri?” Leolin jumped in.

 

Ceri nodded quickly. “I wasn’t being mean; I just told Lian that we couldn’t play together because Lian was too little and he’d be going to bed soon.”

 

“You called me stupid too!” Lian denied.

 

“Only because you wouldn’t go!” Ceri said back.

 

“You do not call any of your brothers or sisters stupid. Ever.” Farren growled angrily. Leolin had noticed that his older brother was growling a lot lately and he wondered if it was due to his Dracken side.

 

“It was just a slip.” Ceri said softly, sounding near tears. “I didn’t mean it.”

 

“Then say you’re sorry to Lian and make up.” Leolin ordered.

 

Farren put Lian down and they watched as Ceri and Jay hugged Lian and apologised softly.

 

“Now play nice, you shouldn’t be playing any game that Lian can’t join in, there’s only four years between you and you’ll be going to bed just an hour after he does.” Farren told them as he turned and left the room.

 

“Are you alright to stay Lian?” Leolin stayed to ask.

 

Lian looked at Ceri and Jay, who both nodded and Lian turned back with a grin and nodded happily. Leolin nodded himself and then left them to it, shutting the door behind him.

He hated dealing with bullying between his siblings, it reminded him of how he’d felt when he would go to the park or out to the zoo or the swimming pool with his siblings and he’d have to deal with all the laughing and pointing and the bullying from the other children and even their parents. It had upset him so much and he’d burrowed himself into a shell, but he’d always felt so safe with his sac siblings and with Braiden and even the twin terrors, they always looked after him and made him happy and the thought of any of his little brothers or sisters feeling the way he had when he was younger from their own family made him feel sick.

He wouldn’t have it and he would always put a stop to it if he could and naturally, if Farren got involved, the person being a bully would back off quickly. Farren was huge, big, broad and if he was in a bad mood his voice deepened to a growl and he looked terrifying and intimidating. Farren could put a stop to arguments and fights quicker than anyone else could, except for their Mum, if their Mum said to do something, it was done immediately with no arguments.

Leolin went into his bedroom and got down his photo album, he felt like looking through his pictures until it was time for bed and flicking through the album he remembered a lot of good memories that helped him remember that he was a part of the family and that he was loved even if he was sometimes a little slow or he lost his temper through frustration; though seeing his wings from when he was born made them itchy and he reached a hand under his shirt to scratch at them, arching his back at how good it felt to do just that.

He still couldn’t move them, not even when he concentrated really, really hard. Uncle Kailen told him that it would be another two years or so before they’d even twitch and three or even four years before he’d be able to even attempt to fly with them, but they looked pretty at the moment. He loved the colour of them and he thanked his Mum and Dad for giving him such regal, unique colours for his wings, he and his two younger Faerie siblings were the only ones alive with such a colouring and it made him feel special and he’d make sure that his two younger Faerie siblings always knew that they were special too.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Braiden grinned as he lifted Sully over his head and listened to the soft, infectious baby giggles. His Mum had been letting him do more and more with the babies and toddlers the closer to sixteen he got and he’d bathed Sully and gotten him ready for bed all by himself tonight, without any of his parents supervising him. He still found the all in one baby sleepsuits utterly adorable and he snuggled his baby brother to his chest as he yawned, showing off the few teeth he had and the new one he was growing in.

He was admittedly nervous, he turned sixteen tomorrow, or technically tonight at midnight, and he’d come into his Dracken inheritance tonight and though his parents had tried to alleviate every fear he had, some doubt still remained. He’d have wings, claws, fangs and scales tomorrow. He had spent sixteen years getting used to himself, seeing himself in the mirror and now he was going to change. He was worried that he wasn’t going to like the look of himself once he woke up tomorrow morning.

 

“Loren, stop playing with yourself!” His Dad Draco snapped at the little three year old, who pulled a tiny hand from inside a nappy with a guilty pout.

 

“Don’t you shout at my baby!” His Mum hissed out angrily as he went and picked up a shuffling Loren.

 

“That sort of behaviour…”

 

“I don’t care! Loren is three years old; do you think shouting at the top of your lungs in their faces is going to stop them from doing it? It’s a comfort thing!”

 

“It’s…”

 

“No! I don’t want to hear it, go away!”

 

His Dad Draco stormed off and Braiden sighed. His parents all loved one another, but sometimes they did butt heads, argue and fight, they’d sometimes go days without speaking in an almost visible haze of tension if they were being really stubborn, but it never lasted for longer than two or three days at the most, they’d come down for breakfast one morning and it would be like nothing had ever happened. He didn’t want to think on exactly how they made up, he could go his entire life without thinking on that subject, but as he watched his Mum reassure Loren and tell his little sibling calmly and softly what had happened and why it wasn’t polite to stick a hand down the front of a nappy, he realised that this was going to be the ‘last for days’ kind of fight. He was coming into his inheritance tonight and his parents were fighting at a time when he needed all of them.

 

“Bay, snug-snug.”

 

Braiden grinned. He’d taught Sully that word and he cuddled the ten month old tightly. “Come on Sully, time to get you into bed.”

 

“No.”

 

“Yes, come on Sully snuggle bug, you have to go to bed now.”

 

Sully giggled and held on tight when he stood up, little arms wrapped around his neck. He cuddled him tightly as he carried him up the stairs and into a nursery near his parents’ room. The adjoining nursery was for the month old triplets, they’d been moved there the week before from beside his parents’ bed.

He couldn’t wait to have his own child, but he was still scared for tonight, though he tried to hide it from all of his family, he thought he might have failed with Tegan earlier at dinner, he’d gotten increasingly more nervous the closer to night it got, but she hadn’t said anything and he knew his sister, if she’d had anything on her mind, she would have come to him and said it.

Braiden sat in the rocking chair in Sully’s nursery and slipped a hand into the side pocket to find a book to read to his baby brother. He kept his voice light and calm, like he’d heard his Mum do and Sully was asleep before he’d finished even half of the book.

He sighed as he realised it was getting closer and closer to midnight and he stood to put Sully into his cot, making sure his feet were to the bottom of the cot, even though Sully was older now and at less risk from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and covered him over with a light, summer blanket. He brushed the black hair away from his face and bent to kiss him before switching on the baby monitor, taking the other one of the pair and leaving the room.

He gave the monitor to his Dad Blaise as they passed one another and then he went and tried to relax in the living room with a book as the little kids were all settled into bed, but he couldn’t focus and he was reading the same page over and over again without taking any of it in and it only got worse when the preteens and younger teens were sent to bed at nine O’clock. He swallowed with an exceedingly dry mouth and tried to drink the tea that he’d made for himself, but the only thought that kept rolling around in his mind was of tonight, and what was going to happen to him and how much he was going to change overnight.

He spoke with Calix and Farren, cuddled with Leolin and spoke some more with Tegan and Regan, but it was a hassle trying to pretend that he was alright when he wasn’t and when they were told to go to bed at ten, he was almost glad that he could finally get away from everyone as he rushed up the stairs to his bedroom where he showered himself and got into his pyjamas.

The wait was agonising as he couldn’t actually sleep, he couldn’t even keep still anymore as midnight got ever closer. He cleaned his bedroom twice, rearranged his books, sorted out his trunk and remade his bed. He just couldn’t relax and when half eleven at night came around, he just felt sick with nerves and fear.

A knock on his door had him pausing in mid step as he paced his floor space and he almost grinned when his quintuplet siblings piled into his room and started trying to take his mind off of his inheritance, talking about nonsense and soon they all climbed into his bed with him and by one O’clock in the morning, nothing had happened and he relaxed more with the light banter and quiet chatter. One by one they all drifted off to sleep, but though he tried, he just couldn’t get to sleep like they could, his mind wouldn’t stop racing.

At two in the morning he slipped out of his bed, being very careful so that he didn’t wake any of his brothers or his sister, and he started his nervous pacing again. He looked sharply at the bed when Farren groaned in his sleep and slipped closer to Leolin.

He didn’t want to wake them if he cried out when his inheritance hit, so he left his bedroom, turning out the light on his way and he went downstairs. He was very surprised to see his parents still awake and sat in the kitchen, talking quietly together.

 

“I thought you’d be down here tonight.” His Mum said as Braiden was spotted and he came and hugged him tightly, reassuringly.

 

“I just can’t sleep.” He admitted. “I’m so nervous.”

 

“We know, we’ve been watching you all day.” His Dad Nasta told him.

 

“I know you said that there was nothing to be nervous over, I just can’t help it.”

 

“Tell us what you’re afraid of.” His Dad Blaise suggested, pulling him down into a chair next to him as his Dad Max made them all tea.

 

“I don’t…what if…what if I don’t like myself after I’ve changed?” He said meekly, admitting his fears now only because all of his siblings were asleep and couldn’t hear him. He was the oldest one, the one his younger brothers and sisters all went to with questions and looked up to, he didn’t want them to see him weak or scared and destroy their image of him in their minds.

 

“Nothing much happens Braiden, as we’ve told you. You might grow a little taller, you might bulk up a bit, your face might smoothen out a little, but your nose isn’t just going to change shape and your eyes won’t change colour, you’ll still be you.” His Dad Draco insisted. It seemed he and his Mum had made up early for his sake tonight and he was so glad. He needed all of them tonight, he wanted all of them with him tonight.

 

“Seeing the scales is probably the biggest shock.” His Dad Blaise told him. “But they’ll perfectly match the colour of your skin and they’ll be barely noticeable and you can hide them easily with just a thought.”

 

“For me it was waking up the next morning and being able to see.” His Mum said with a happy, reminiscing smile. “You’ve seen the pictures of when I was younger, I used to wear glasses before my inheritance and I was near enough blind without them. Waking up that morning and being immediately able to see everything and more…it was amazing, breath taking…liberating really. The detail of everything that I had missed while wearing glasses was astounding. I knew immediately that something had happened and that’s when I found the scales, then the wings, claws and fangs. I completely freaked out, naturally. I had no clue what was happening, what was going on or why I’d changed. You’re lucky love, you have us to help you, to tell you beforehand what’s going to happen to prepare you, I never had that, I didn’t even know what I was or why I’d changed, it was very distressing and disorientating.”

 

“I didn’t know what I was either.” His Dad Draco said softly. “I freaked out too, I went nigh on ballistic, I found out what I was through potions I’d meticulously brewed while hiding myself away as much as possible, I found out where the creature blood had come from and I started researching ways to prevent anyone from knowing what I was and I told you how foolish I was over the whole thing.”

 

“You were worried about being a creature, Draco.” His Mum said softly, touching a pale hand gently. “You were terrified over what people would think, it wasn’t foolish, you were just scared.”

 

“I almost made myself sterile!” His Dad burst out painfully, sounding as upset as Braiden had ever heard him. He pulled back in surprise though; he’d never heard that part of the story before.

 

“How?” He asked horrified, thinking of the brothers and sisters his Dad had given him. He couldn’t imagine them never being born, it made his heart skip several beats as his stomach lurched. He didn’t want to think about never having those beloved siblings around him.

 

“The suppression potion he was taking was not meant for long term use.” His Dad Max said sombrely as he put down a cup of tea in front of all of them. “If used for long enough it starts to leave a deposit in the soft tissues of the body and if used in the extreme excess it can kill as it is only supposed to be used for a maximum of three months at any one time, and that really is the absolute limit, some Drackens who have used it for three months have been fine, others registered the beginnings of tissue damage and after every use, no matter how long or short, two weeks, a month, three months, the body should be cleansed and detoxed with potions to get rid of any lingering traces of the potion once the user has stopped concealing themselves with the potions. Your Dad had been taking it for six, seven months before it even came to light that he was taking it and that was only because your Mum started calling out to all dominant Drackens, it made the potion ineffectual as his Dracken instincts overruled the dampening effects of the potion. Then something happened between the three of them and your Mum and Dad Blaise found out that he had been on the potion and they went to your Dad Blaise’s Godfather Severus, who was a Potions Master at Hogwarts.”

 

“The potion had started affecting my fertility and I never noticed. I went through a withdrawal when I first came off the potion; my kidneys had been affected by the potions the most and I needed to take twice daily potions to clear them out and fix them. I stayed well away from your Mum and your Dad Blaise during that time and I cleansed myself of the potion and its effects, or so I had thought. We found out years later that the potion had started laying down deposits in my testicles, preventing them from working in the way they were supposed to and affecting my sperm too. But years later the damage was still there and getting worse the longer it went untreated. I had to take detox and fertility potions to counter the damage I’d done at the age of sixteen and even then the damage will never be fully reversed. I’m so ashamed of myself.”

 

“You have children now, you’re fertile enough to get me pregnant even if the damage is irreversible, you have children.” His Mum said softly and the two shared a loved up look.

 

“You don’t need to be ashamed either.” His Dad Nasta said as he pulled his Dad Draco into a kiss. “You did what you thought was for the best at the time, you didn’t know it was dangerous to keep taking the suppression potion.”

 

“I should have though.”

 

His parents all sighed and then his Mum turned back to him. “How are you feeling now?”

 

“Still nervous.”

 

“Have you tried to pull out your attributes to see if you’ve already gone through the transformation?” His Dad Blaise asked.

 

Braiden nodded. “I’ve been trying constantly.”

 

“It won’t be long now, love, just try to relax and drink your tea.”

 

Braiden nodded and he looked at the clock as three in the morning approached, his hands wrapped around the cup of tea he had, sipping at it occasionally, but not really drinking it.

 

“What if you were wrong and I’m not a Dracken?” He asked fearfully.

 

All five of his parents laughed at that.

 

“I wasn’t wrong love; you’ve shown signs of being a Dracken in the last year leading up to your inheritance.” His Mum said. “I scented you out at birth and I know you’re a Dracken and that you’re going to be a wonderful Dracken at that, I wasn’t mistaken, I promise.”

 

Braiden was on eggshells as he waited for something, anything to happen and when it didn’t, he just felt worse as he yawned widely again. He rarely stayed up this late, but he knew he wouldn’t sleep and he didn’t want to disturb his brothers and sister by going back to bed when he was just going to toss and turn all night until he actually went through his transformation.  

 

“You’re going to spend the entire day tomorrow in bed.” His Dad Nasta said with a worried frown.

 

“I won’t. I wouldn’t miss my own birthday; the little ones wouldn’t allow it.” He said with a tired grin.

 

“Don’t forget that all the family will be around tomorrow too, your Grandparents, your Aunts and Uncles, your cousins, all of them.”

 

“Where have you hidden my birthday cake this year?” He asked with a cheeky smile. “It must be the size of the kitchen table to feed that many people.”

 

“You wish it was the size of the kitchen table.” His Dad Nasta snorted.

 

“I want more than a slice of my own cake!” He pouted.

 

“How does it feel to be sixteen now?” His Dad Max asked.

 

Braiden shrugged. “No different to how I felt yesterday really. How does it feel to be fifty?”

 

“I’m not fifty yet you little brat. I’m forty-six.”

 

“You’ll be forty-seven in a month.” Braiden teased.

 

His Dad huffed and crossed huge arms over a thick chest and stuck his nose in the air. “I say we string him up outside.” He told the others. “He’s too cheeky now that he’s sixteen.”

 

Braiden laughed with his Mum and other Dads, which was cut short when a cry came over the baby monitor. He watched, amazed still, as his parents all worked together to deal with the hungry baby. His Dad Max went and boiled the kettle as his Dad Nasta went to get the baby, his Dad Draco got a clean bottle out of the top cupboard and tossed it to his Dad Blaise, who scooped in the formula powder before handing it to his Dad Max to fill with boiling water.

 

“Wonderful isn’t it?” His Mum asked. He hadn’t had to move an inch from his chair. “Unfortunately it only lasts for a month or two after the baby is born, then I’ll have to do it all again, but it’s nice to have a break now and then.”

 

Braiden grinned, before he had to stop and yawn behind his hands. He watched as his Dad Nasta brought in a little baby dressed in green, he couldn’t tell from this distance which of his newest siblings he had in his arms, but as he watched how efficient his parents worked, how they all danced around one another to feed and settle the woken baby, he couldn’t help but hope that he could do the same with his mate and baby when the time came.

When the month old baby had been fed and burped, the baby was handed to his Mum, who cuddled the baby close to his heart, now identified to him as Lia.

Another hour and all three of the triplets had been fed and put back to sleep and the long, torturous waiting started again. It was nearing four in the morning when it finally happened. He was thinking about what he’d look like with wings, trying to picture them and thinking about what colour they might be if he was a dominant Dracken like his Dads’. He could take any of their colours through his Mum and any colours his grandparents, great-grandparents and beyond had had through their entire family line.

The pain had been sharp and immediate and two wings burst out of his back in a shower of blood and he cried out with the uncomfortable, strange feeling of something sliding out of his back and the pain of his skin splitting open in such a way for the first time.

His Dads were immediately on their feet to hold him and his Mum had arms wrapped around him comfortingly, easing him through the pain, stroking his face with one hand and his hair with the other.

He blinked tears out of his eyes and sniffled as he came down from the sudden, shocking, painful experience. He pulled back and squirmed in his parents hold and he finally got to look at his wings that had been growing inside him his entire life for the first time. What he could see of them anyway as they were plastered in blood and were dripping with a thick, viscous mucus that dribbled from the top of his wing bone and over the leathery surface of his actual wings. He grimaced heavily. He’d been told it would be bloody and messy, but this was just gross, it was too much gore.

He sat in his Mum’s hold as his Dads cleaned his wings for him and wherever else the blood had gotten during his transformation. He’d sprayed blood on the walls even. He was glad he hadn’t changed in his bedroom after all.

 

“Are you okay love?” His Mum asked.

 

He nodded. “I’m just…that was sudden. I’m a little shocked.”

 

“That’s understandable. I take it you were thinking about your wings?”

 

Braiden nodded and sniffled again, taking a breath in and finding it was shaky.

 

“Think of your fangs and claws love, carefully now.”

 

Braiden did as he was asked and he was stunned to see the claws that came through his fingernails and a quick press up with his tongue found the points of four fangs in his mouth.

 

“Oh god.” He was quivering, actually shaking and he couldn’t stop.

 

“It’s alright, just breathe love, keep breathing, you’re still you and we still love you, stay calm and keep breathing.”

 

Braiden did as he was told and he suckled in several more breaths, feeling the soft, wet and warm cloths sponge away the blood and mucus that covered him. He practiced with his Mum, who was taking his mind off of what had happened and keeping him calm and from going into shock or a full blown panic attack, as he practiced pulling in his fangs and claws, thinking about uncovering his scales and seeing the small, flat flesh coloured scales that covered his arms and hands. He could barely see them, but they reflected the overhead lights from the kitchen when he moved.

 

“Pull your wings in a moment Braiden.”

 

Almost afraid of what would happen Braiden did was he was told and thought about his wings slipping back into his body and he grimaced at the slight pain of it.

 

“Now pull them back out, love.”

 

Still thinking of the pain of the last time he’d done this, he tentatively thought of his wings coming out and he was almost surprised to find that there was no pain at all, just that slight slithering sensation as they slipped out of his body, but no pain.

 

“There we go, see, it’s not too bad, is it? You’ll get used to the sensation they cause as they unfurl the more you do it too.” His Mum said, pulling his head into a kiss. “Now tuck them back in, they’re nice and clean, and then get yourself to bed. It’s almost quarter to five in the morning; I’ll definitely be keeping the other kids out of your bedroom tomorrow so you can sleep in a bit, until midday at least.”

 

“Might be a bit difficult, the quintuplets are in my bed.” He said with a tired grin. He was exhausted now, but oh so very happy.

 

“Then go and sleep in one of their rooms.” His Dad Max told him with a grin. “You’re a fully-fledged Dracken now and honestly, I couldn’t be more proud. I love you kid, now go and do as your Mother said and get to bed, because if I have to stay up any longer then I’m not going to make the stairs and I’ll be sleeping downstairs.”

 

Braiden laughed at that and tiredly, sluggishly, pulled himself up, hugging his Dads and his Mum tightly and thanking them softly for being there for him, despite how damn bloody late it was, or would that be early now?

He left the kitchen and just as he reached the bottom of the stairs he heard his Dad Max say ‘I can’t believe we have to do all of this again in just four months.’ He grinned as he heard his other four parents laugh. He would sit down with Farren and the twin girls and he’d tell them in detail what had happened and he hoped that when their inheritance came around that they weren’t as nervous and scared as he had been.

He made it upstairs, to the floor his room was on and then it hit him. He _was_ a Dracken; he was going to get a mate, maybe even more than one and he’d have his own children! He pulled his wings out quickly and he examined them in detail. He grinned widely and laughed quietly so that he wouldn’t wake anyone up. He stroked his clean, blood free wing gently and shivered with how pleasurable it had felt.

Oh he couldn’t wait to show off tomorrow, or later today rather, his family were going to be so proud of him and he was excited now for the first time about his birthday, he couldn’t wait to show every single one of his Grandparents, all of his Aunts and Uncles and his great-Aunts and Great-Uncles and his cousins, everyone!

He tucked his beautiful wings back in and almost bounced back into his bedroom, only to stop short as he realised his quintuplet siblings were in his bed. He’d forgotten all about that in his joyous excitement.

He breathed in and shrugged to himself, if he wanted to get up to show off tomorrow, then he’d be better off slipping into his own bed with his siblings, because they would be up early and he would be woken up with them and then he could start showing off earlier.

He pulled his ruined sleep shirt from his body and left it on the floor by the door, his Dads had cleaned him all up, so he could happily crawl into his bed with his brothers and his sister and just lay down to sleep without needing to take another shower. Sleep came to him easily now, despite how excited he was for tomorrow, as he was completely and utterly exhausted, but he was so happy and he closed his eyes, cuddling in tight to his siblings and he fell right off to sleep, very happy, very tired, very excited and very much a full-fledged Dracken.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you lovelies enjoyed this one as much as I do. I love this chapter and it only took me a couple of days to write, which for the length of it is amazing! Hopefully I haven’t given away any genders that I hadn’t meant to or any paternities I didn’t want to either for that matter, but I can’t see any from my countless read throughs, which is a good sign.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, I hope you enjoyed all the work that went into making it and I hope you’re all well,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	38. Scavenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 19th to 20th April 2014
> 
> Braiden – 16 years 8 months old  
> Quintuplets – 16 years 3 months old  
> Eva and A – 15 years 3 months old  
> Taren – 14 years 2 months old  
> Lai – 13 years 6 months old  
> Xabiere – 12 years 1 month old  
> Mace and Evie – 11 years 5 months old  
> Mollie – 11 years old  
> Quadruplets – Ceri, Jay, Ethan, Sae – 10 years 1 month old  
> Ser and Sen – 7 years 11 months old  
> Lian – 6 years 4 months old  
> Triplets – Fee, Vie and Luce – 5 years 9 months old  
> Loren – 4 years 6 months old  
> Ric and Lanie – 3 years 6 months old  
> Sully – 1 year 7 months old  
> Triplets – Lia, Nia, Van – 10 months old  
> Pregnant with sextuplets

Scavenge 

Harry sighed as he opened the seventeenth cardboard box in a row and took out the foil wrapped chocolate egg from inside carefully and put it in the basket of other colourful foil wrapped eggs.

It was Easter and he had promised his excited children an egg hunt. He hadn’t anticipated exactly how many eggs it would take to do a proper egg hunt though. He and Max had gone to several different supermarkets and bought forty eggs and four buckets of twenty smaller, mini hollowed eggs. He’d already owled off giant eggs to Braiden, Farren, Tegan, Regan, Calix, his identical twins, Taren, Lai and Xabiere, who were all at Hogwarts.

 

“How are you doing?” Nasta asked him with a soft smile as he came to touch his large, pregnant belly.

 

“How many eggs does one hunt need?” He asked rhetorically.

 

“You kept to the limit?”

 

“Yes, two eggs each and as many of the little ones as they can find, though I’m hoping that they’ll share them out once they’ve collected them, Senna’s going to be the worst for sharing. That one can pout for Britain and be more stubborn than the mule.”

 

Nasta held him and hummed against his neck, where he was kissing gently, his beard growth rasping across Harry’s skin. Harry laughed.

 

“Lay off. I have to get this done.”

 

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

 

“I know I know, two months pregnant with quintuplets, I know. Stop fussing.”

 

“I can’t help it; this is the first set of quintuplets since the beginning.”

 

Harry nodded, remembering vividly that horrific birthing experience. “I remember love, but I’ve had quadruplets since then and three sets of triplets, I know better now and I know not to push myself too hard. I won’t be having yet another birth at four months gestation, two is more than enough and I trust you and the others to keep all threats away from us.”

 

Nasta nodded and snuggled him up tighter, watching as Harry took another egg from a box and put it in a basket.

Max came in through the back door and shook himself vigorously.

 

“It’s bloody cold out there.”

 

“It is late; it’ll be warmer tomorrow in the sun.” Harry allowed with a nod as Max put his empty basket down and sat to get himself a little warmer. “You haven’t hidden them too well in the toddler section have you?”

 

“No, they’re just lying in the grass mostly.” Max told him. “I can’t be watching my little babies struggling to find eggs in bushes and in flowerpots can I?”

 

“I wouldn’t put it past you.” Draco said as he came into the kitchen from where he’d been sorting out and cleaning up the living room.

 

Blaise came in with his own empty basket and he did almost the same as Max had, shaking himself and shivering as he shut the back door and came to sit down.

 

“How many more are left?” He asked with a groan.

 

“Ten eggs left to unbox and then the little mini ones.” Harry said, even as he took yet another blue foiled egg from its box and placed it in the basket with the other ones.

 

“This was a mistake.” Draco groaned. “Once they know you’ve kept your promise and put chocolate out in the garden we’ll be trampled in the stampede to get outside.”

 

They shared a laugh and Harry shook his head. “They can’t have any if they break the rules.”

 

“There are rules?” Max asked. “That’s not fun.”

 

“General rules.” Harry insisted sternly. “The older kids are not to take any of the eggs from the toddler section, they are not allowed to take eggs from other’s baskets, anyone found fighting over an egg will have that egg taken from them and hidden once again. The one with the most eggs at the end will win the golden bunny.”

 

“I wondered why you insisted on buying that.” Max said as he looked to the gold foil wrapped rabbit.

 

“We have to get to bed soon.” Nasta said worriedly as he looked from Harry to the clock on the wall with a frown.

 

“I’m okay, this is the last basket.”

 

“Max, Blaise, sort that out. Draco, you take Harry up to bed and I’ll lock up.”

 

“I am not one of our children!” Harry insisted angrily.

 

“I certainly hope not, I want to completely ravish you upstairs.” Draco whispered into his ear.

 

Harry laughed, anger completely abated as quickly as it had come. He wrapped his arms around Draco’s neck.

 

“Well if you want to utterly ravish me, I won’t say no to you.” He said huskily.

 

“You two just can’t be stopped!” Nasta sighed.

 

“Why would you want to stop us?” Harry asked as he cuddled in closer to Draco.

 

Draco picked him up and Harry snuggled in tighter, laying kisses and suckling bites to Draco’s pale neck as he was carried up the stairs and to their master bedroom. It was late, but it was never too late to have some loving with his beloved mates.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry blinked open his eyes and lay still for a handful of heartbeats, listening. He was still very tired, his body ached pleasantly and it was very, very early morning if the pale light coming through the thick curtains was any indication, yet something had woken him up. Something was wrong, he could feel it.

He sat up, ignoring the twinge in his lower spine that had become oh so very familiar, and found a tearful little child at the end of his bed, cuddling a stuffed monkey tightly. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at the bedside clock; it was six in the morning.

 

“S’matter Lore?” He asked gruffly.

 

“Mumma, I had a bad dweam.” His sleepy child sniffled.

 

“Do you want to sleep with us?” He asked.

 

The four year old Lore nodded with a sniffle, rubbing at damp eyes, even as Harry encouraged his child to climb up onto the bed and crawl up to him.

He pulled the duvet back enough to slip his child under the cover and then lay back down, Loren held securely in his arms and Blaise, who was sleeping opposite Harry, grunted in his sleep and wrapped a solid arm around their child and they both sandwiched the frightened toddler between them.

 

“Nothing can get you now Loren, not even nightmares.” Harry whispered softly, groggily as he slipped back off to sleep.

 

Just before he went back to sleep he heard a soft voice in the darkness mutter a soft ‘Thank you Mummy.’ Before he and Loren slipped back into sleep, only to be woken an hour and a half later by the loud shouted cries of three very awake ten month old triplets.

 

“Ohh, someone go and get them, I need more sleep!” Max whined.

 

Loren giggled and that alerted his mates to the presence of a little four year old in their bed.

 

“Are you alright, Loren? Was it another nightmare?” Nasta asked their little child, propping himself up on an elbow and reaching a hand over Blaise and touching a fluffy head.

 

“I had a bad dream, Daddy Nas. Mummy let me sleep here so the monsters wouldn’t get me. I was going to stay in my bed, I just wanted to be sad, but I got too sad and the monsters were going to eat me, so I ran here.”

 

“There are no monsters here, Loren.” Draco assured the toddler.

 

“You can always come to our bed if you feel sad or scared though.” Blaise said with an encouraging nod.

 

“Mummy said I could.” Lore said with a nod. “But I don’t like too, you’re always kissing!”

 

Harry laughed. “That’s because we love one another Loren.”

 

“Kissing spreads cooties, Serra and Senna said so!”

 

“Don’t listen to those two, Lore.” Max said as he stretched before he yawned. “I suppose it’s time to get up, the royal babes are calling for breakfast.”

 

Harry chuckled and shook his head. “Come on Loren, let’s go and see if any of your brothers or sisters are up and then we can have breakfast.”

 

The morning was loud, raucous and, as Sully enjoyed throwing his breakfast over the table and the people sat near him, messy.

The only thing Harry could eat was strawberries. Like the last time he’d been pregnant with quintuplets, he was craving a different food every other hour and usually in disgusting combinations if he had two or three cravings at the same time, but this morning it was strawberries, big, juicy strawberries that had juice running down his chin after every big bite.

Blaise kept leaning over and running his tongue over the tracks the juice made, making Harry grin and bat at his head half-heartedly.

 

“We have a surprise for you all.” Nasta said once breakfast was done and the kids were raring to get down to some serious playtime. “We’re going to have an egg hunt for Easter.”

 

The cries of happiness and elation had Harry grinning as Max brought out eighteen little baskets. Unfortunately their younger Faerie babies couldn’t join in as they weren’t walking or even crawling yet, and their oldest Faerie, a sixteen year old Leolin, had told them that he wanted to supervise to make sure there was no fighting, he didn’t actually want to join in.

Harry held up the golden foil wrapped chocolate rabbit and there were declarations of wanting it.

 

“The one with the most eggs at the end of the hunt will win this rabbit here. There are some rules.”

 

His older children all groaned and frowned at him.

 

“There will be absolutely no fighting; this is a fun game, nothing that needs fighting. Anyone caught fighting will be put in time out and they won’t be allowed back into the hunt afterwards.”

 

“You will not take any egg from one of your brothers’ or sisters’ baskets.” Nasta said sternly. “Anyone caught stealing an egg from someone’s basket will not only be put in time out and not allowed back into the hunt, but will have their basket taken from them too.”

 

“There is a special area in the garden that has been fenced off. The older ones of you will not be allowed to take any egg from this section; it is for the toddlers only. Anyone under five years old will get their eggs from this fenced off section, the rest of you, the eggs are hidden all over the garden, in bushes, under trees, in the grass, some of the bigger eggs are hidden very well, so only those who go properly searching will find them.” Max told the avidly watching children.

 

“Do you all understand?” Harry asked and smiled when he received nods and excited quivering.

 

Max handed out the baskets and Leolin grinned at the excitement of his younger brothers and sisters. Harry held him back when Blaise and Draco let the kids into the garden. He got a huge, giant egg from the top cupboard.

 

“Here you go love, Happy Easter.”

 

“This is huge, Mum!”

 

Harry grinned. “It’s more than you deserve.”

 

“Dad Nas did not approve of these, did he?”

 

“He might have said they were a little too big.” Harry said with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “But it’s a once a year treat, so he didn’t protest too much.”

 

“Thanks Mum. I’ll take this upstairs now and then I’ll be right back down to help with the hunt.”

 

Harry nodded and he picked up his remaining Faerie child and carried him into the garden, noting that Blaise had picked up the older Faerie baby. He cuddled the little, fragile boy in his arms before placing him in a special hammock that cradled his tiny body and supported him without putting pressure on his little wing joints.

 

“Mamma.” The little boy murmured, blinking huge golden eyes up at him and Harry’s face folded into such a soft smile as he stroked a soft, white pale cheek. His Faerie son closed his eyes and Harry watched as he drifted off to sleep quickly.

 

Blaise brought over the older Faerie baby and laid the sleeping baby next to the other Faerie baby in the hammock.

 

“This was a genius idea.” Blaise said with a smile as he brushed the cheeks of the two Faerie babies, who were rolled together because of the shape of the hammock.

 

Harry nodded before he turned back to look at the line of kids. Nasta was reiterating the rules to the older children while Draco was herding the younger ones into the makeshift fenced off area, where the eggs were just lying in the grass and the most hidden egg was lying half behind an upturned flowerpot. His little toddlers were giggling and he smiled when Loren, the oldest one in the toddler pen, took Sully’s hand and they went looking for eggs together. The younger triplets, who had only just found their feet a month before, were being escorted by Draco, who was hunched over, bent almost in half at the waist, two tiny hands in his own and one little triplet, the one who could walk the best out of the three, wibbling and wobbling in front of him.

 

“You sit by here, love.” Blaise encouraged helping him ease himself into a chair next to the hammock full of two Faerie babies.

 

Harry rolled his eyes, but said nothing as Leolin came back out, touching his Faerie siblings with a grin, before going with Blaise to supervise the hunt.

Harry could help laughing at the early morning excitement the hunt had garnered and the three bridges that Nasta had conjured last night for the purpose of hiding more eggs were being well travelled as Lian charged over one and Ceri crawled under another, hunting for eggs that they either found, or just missed because they were either too excited or rushing too much to see them.

Some were better at finding the hidden eggs than others and when Sae, his more academic, studious child, came and sat by his feet, little basket still completely empty, he felt his heart break. This was supposed to be fun, not make any one of his children feel inadequate to brothers and sisters. He knew his Sae was more into books and puzzles and this was just hammering home that Sae just wasn’t any good at anything to do with sports or physical activities and he hated that this was becoming a bad experience for his youngest quadruplet.

He nudged the ten year old with his foot and he bent down, pretending to tie his shoelace.

 

“Hey, Sae love, I think there’s a blue egg right under that first bridge, if you look you can see the sun glinting off the foil. Ceri has crawled past it twice now and Evie just missed crushing it with a knee. I think it would be safer in your basket.”

 

The smile that Sae gave him made him feel teary and he swore to pay more attention to his youngest quadruplet, just in case there was a little something more behind the morose, inadequate feeling mood today, other than just not being able to find an egg.

He watched as Sae dived under the bridge and picked up the blue wrapped egg that had been placed right under the wooden structure, away from the main crawl space, half hidden in shade. Sae put it proudly in the little basket on a stick like arm and the resulting grin almost shamed the sun as the ten year old started diving around the garden again, hunting once more with brothers and sisters for once not buried in a book or secluded away in a quiet room doing a puzzle. It helped that the blue wrapped egg had been one of the bigger eggs too.

Nasta gave him a look, not at all fooled, but Harry grinned cheekily and winked before going back to supervising from his chair. He wanted so much to be out there with his mates, running around with his children and encouraging them to hunt for eggs, giving them tips and hints and catching their infectious excitement and at two months pregnant, he usually would have been, but not with another set of quintuplets. He couldn’t risk his pregnancy or the health of his five babies or himself. He had to take it easy no matter how much he hated it or how much it frustrated and even angered him. He would not have another labour and birth like he had for his first set of quintuplets and he would not risk having another clutch like his eighth, where only his tiny little Mollie had survived what should have been his first set of triplets.

The hunt got called for a break at lunchtime as all the kids held on tightly to their baskets and counted up their eggs. Serra had the most eggs so far and was definitely not shy in pointing it out and goading the others into an argument.

 

“That’s enough, eat your lunches.” Max said, who had done a quick, picnic style lunch to make things easier on himself. “There are still twenty-seven eggs left to be found, you may have the most so far Ser, but you may not by the end of the hunt so be kind to your brothers and sisters.”

 

“Yes, Daddy Max.” Ser said softly, going back to the plate of food on the table.

 

The toddlers had found all of their eggs and Loren had made sure that they all had an equal number of eggs without being told to or prompted to do so, the little four year old had just done it instinctively, taking the hands of the younger ones; Sully, Lia, Nia and Vanna, and helped them find the eggs in the pen and Harry was just bursting with pride.

Draco took the little ones that he had been supervising to go for their naps after lunch, while the rest of them went to supervise the remaining thirteen children in the rest of the egg hunting while Harry stayed with his little Faerie babies, who had been left sleeping in the tableside bassinets, while he did the dishes.

He lived for days like this, where he had nothing pressing to do, where he could kick back and relax as he watched his children having a good time, it was days like this where he missed his older children, who were all in Hogwarts. He hated them being away from him, though he understood rationally that they needed an education, they needed to be away from him to grow and come into their own, but it hurt something within him to know that they were away from him for most of the year, where he could only converse with them through letters sent via owl.

He stayed indoors once he was done with the dishes, he took his little Faerie children into the living room and he sat on the settee, rubbing his belly. He’d only been able to eat a few sausage rolls and a handful of strawberries for lunch and he was feeling more than a little queasy.

He lay back and just rested, instead of pushing himself like he normally would have if he’d been pregnant with anything other than high multiples. Another set of quintuplets, he sighed and rubbed his forehead. They only had eight cots, which seemed like a hell of a lot, but seeing as those eight cots were spread through three different rooms and six of them were currently being used and would still be in use when he went into labour and gave birth…they needed three new cots for the arrival of the new set of quintuplets and five new mattresses and sets of linen. Thankfully the quintuplets would be in bassinets for the first month or two of their lives and he had five of those free thanks in part to his previous set of quintuplets.

He had been trying to work out exactly what they would need and how many they could get away with, but Ric and Lanie couldn’t be moved from their cots to a bed and Sully definitely wasn’t ready for that change yet. He just…there was nothing he could do to ease the need for more cots, either way they’d still need to buy one or two new ones, why not three? They’d been lucky and got by on just eight cots for all these years, through thirty-one babies, they were lucky for that and thankfully the transition from moving a baby from a cot to a bed was getting easier and easier with pressure from older brothers and sisters sleeping in ‘big boy and big girl beds’ and the younger children tried to emulate their older siblings more and more.

 

“There you are, are you okay?” Max asked as he came to sit on the side of the settee, facing Harry and cupping his face.

 

“I’m okay, I felt a bit queasy after lunch, so I came to sit down so I wouldn’t ruin the fun outside.”

 

Max petted his belly and looked at him with concern. “Do you want us to keep the kids in the garden?”

 

Harry shook his head hard. “No, absolutely not, I want to see them. I feel sick, that doesn’t mean I don’t want them around me. I want to hear all their tales and who won the egg hunt too; I have to present them with the golden bunny.”

 

Max nodded and stood, before bending to kiss his cheek, pulling back with a smile as he left to herd the children into the house.

Harry propped himself up a bit, but not too much as his belly protested with a sharp lurch. He breathed deeply and settled himself, propped up enough to imitate sitting up, but not enough to lose the contents of his tender stomach.

 

“Mummy! Mummy I won!” His oldest triplet, Fee, told him in excitement as his children all bound into the room.

 

“They cheated!” Lian exclaimed with a pout. “Vie and Luce put their eggs in Fee’s basket so they could win the gold bunny!”

 

Harry looked to Vie and Luce and saw that though they had some eggs in their basket, they had nowhere near the amount they’d had at lunch. He couldn’t believe that his little five year olds had even thought to do such a thing; they were definitely Draco’s children.

 

“The rules are the rules.” Max said as he handed Harry the golden bunny. “If you can’t accept that then your Mum will just keep the bunny for himself.”

 

The very thought of eating chocolate had Harry squeezing his eyes closed and swallowing down bile.

 

“Can someone go and get me those salted crackers, please.” He said softly as he breathed shallowly and calmly to control himself.

 

“Daddy Nas! Mummy’s going to be sick! Hurry!” Senna shouted over the sudden shrieks and concern all his children showed to him, as if Nasta hadn’t heard Harry ask for his crackers, the very crackers he only ever ate when he had a bad bout of morning sickness.

 

The noise did not help him with his control and he soon found himself holding his breath to suppress the urge to vomit, that was until Blaise distracted the kids and Nasta was able to come and help sooth him and feed him crackers. Not the most romantic moment in the world, but Harry really couldn’t have given two fucks in that moment as he nibbled the dry, salted crackers and allowed Nasta to rub his belly with no complaints.

Max came to stand by them and he had a cup of strong, bitter tea and a potion in his hands. Harry had gone right off of his usual honey tea, and chocolate, and cakes, and anything and everything sweet. If it was sweet, it was likely to make him vomit; he wanted bitter, salty and savoury foods, like the tart, out of season, strawberries and anything salted and bitter, like pickled onions, pilchards on toast and feta cheese, just holding the chocolate bunny today was making him battle his stomach as he could smell the chocolate through the foil.

The potion settled his stomach in minutes and the bitter tea battled his cravings and he was set to carry on his day, at least until the next instance where his pregnant body battled the smells and tastes around him.

 

“Are you better now Mummy?” Lian asked softly, petting his hair gently, like they’d been taught to do with the newborn babies.

 

“I’m fine love, your new brothers and sisters are making me feel a little sick, but I’m okay.”

 

“Bad babies!” Lore said, his four year old scowling at his belly as if the babies within could hear and understand what was said. It made him smile to think that Loren thought that the babies were making him sick on purpose, it was adorable.

 

“Come on, don’t let silly me ruin your Easter, go and eat all your eggs and swap and share with brothers and sisters, your Dad Nasta would like for you to only have two big eggs each, though the little eggs are all for you.”

 

“I have three of the big eggs.” Mace said with a shrug. His eleven year old looking at his brothers and sisters from his massive vantage point, he was even bigger than Farren had been at his age by at least two or three inches. He was chasing his namesake for the title of tallest person in the family.

 

“I only have one, Macie.” Sae said with a pout, showing the meagre basket which had the one big blue egg that Harry had pointed out and just three of the smaller eggs.

 

Mace immediately picked up one of his big eggs and dropped it into Sae’s basket, taking a handful of the smaller eggs and dumping them into Sae’s basket too.

 

“There you go, kid. Go get hyper.” Mace said as he accepted the excited hug from Sae and held the ten year old to his body before shoving Sae off and away.

 

Mace’s twin, Evie, gave him a grin and punched his shoulder.

 

“You’re such a softie.” Evie said with a wide grin.

 

Mace snorted. “It’s a worship thing.”

 

“How’d you work that out?”

 

“I’m the biggest one at home, so they all look up to me for that, but if I give them my eggs, they’ll worship me like a god!”

 

Harry couldn’t help the snort of laughter that came from him as he fell back on the settee and just laughed, joined by his mates, Mace, Evie, Leolin and Mollie.

 

“What’s so funny?” The younger kids asked as they looked around with frowns.

 

“Nothing kids.” Mace said with a grin. “Just enjoy your eggs and remember to swap and share, or you’ll only have to drink nasty Daddy Max’s Skele-gro when you have your teeth ripped out.”

 

That got the kids sharing and Harry smiled as he watched them. He and his mates had raised wonderful, amazing children and though some of them were more bratty than others, especially Senna, they were all sharing happily, even his Senna, who poked a small tongue out at Ethan who wanted Sen’s pretty purple foil wrapped egg that Senna just didn’t want to part with and handed Ethan a red wrapped egg instead.

Harry smiled at them all, they were all perfect, utterly perfect and he just knew that his new set of five would be just as perfect. They said that all Mothers thought their babies were the best, the most perfect, but his really, really were just utterly perfect. They were polite, kind, loving, they shared well, they showed concern and compassion for those around them, they were well behaved in public and they had table manners next to none, he was immensely proud of his babies, they were perfect, everyone who didn’t agree were just jealous and bitter people who only wished they had a child like his.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Easter lovelies! Or as I say, national chocolate week (month). I hope you’re all well and happy and that you’re enjoying yourselves.  
> I’m close to updating Damaged Bodies, which is good news! The Rise of the Drackens will not be updated until I’ve updated both Damaged Bodies and Lycan Factory as I just don’t want to work on it, sorry, but that’s how it goes, so stop with the ‘is this story abandoned’ line just because I haven’t updated in a month, it’s ridiculous.  
> To those who were confused over Braiden’s inheritance in the last chapter. I did not, nor will I, reveal if Braiden is a dominant or a submissive Dracken. That is a long, long way off yet, as in, only when The Rise of the Drackens is done and finished. You didn’t miss anything and I excessively read, re-read and then read it through again to make sure that absolutely no hint of his status was mentioned or even hinted at in the chapter, there is no way to tell what he is from what I wrote in the last chapter, you didn’t miss anything and there were no hidden hints, I promise.
> 
> I think that’s everything covered, for those who read these notes at least! I’ll see you lovelies soon, as I said, Damaged Bodies will be first, though that Baby Harry Stark crossover is going really good, I very much enjoy that plot and the Myron/Harry Scaled Bits chapter will be finished very soon, it has to be or I’m going to be up 40,000 words on it and I just can’t be doing a chapter that long.
> 
> I’ll see you lovelies soon,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	39. Summer Sweetness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> August 2027
> 
> Nasta – 67 years old  
> Max – 60 years old  
> Blaise – 47 years old   
> Draco – 47 years old  
> Harry – 47 years old
> 
> Braiden – 30 years old  
> Quintuplets – 29 years old  
> Eva and Ave – 28 years old  
> Taren – 27 years old  
> Lai – 26 years old  
> Xabiere – 25 years old.  
> Mace and Evie – 24 years old.  
> Mollie – 24 years old.  
> Quadruplets – 23 years old.  
> Ser and Sen – 21 years old.  
> Lian – 19 years old.  
> Triplets – Fee, Vie and Luce – 19 years old.  
> Loren – 17 years old.  
> Ric and Lanie – 16 years old.  
> Sully – 14 years old.  
> Triplets – Lia, Nia and Van – 14 years old.  
> Sextuplets – 13 years old.  
> Lye – 8 years old.  
> Caron – 7 years old  
> Lala – 5 years old.
> 
> Oliver – 18 months

Summer Sweetness

 

It was the height of summer and Harry hadn’t fallen pregnant in the last five years, he hadn’t even had a heat period for the last five years, but that was alright. It gave him plenty of time to run around after the growing children he did have.

His youngest, a sweet little child affectionately nicknamed Lala, was running around barefoot, wearing absolutely nothing but a sun hat, who was being chased around, screeching and laughing as Nasta tried to catch the very quick five year old to get more sun cream on the naked, sun bared body.

 

“You need to run faster than that!” Max called out teasingly, laughing uproariously when Nasta gave him a good glare.

 

Harry smiled but he sighed as he looked at his spread children. His house was beginning to feel empty. He had twenty-two children who still lived at home with him, but only three of them weren’t teenagers yet, so next month, when eleven of his children rushed off to Hogwarts, he would be left with three children who were too young to go, his two remaining Faerie babies and the six children who were out of Hogwarts, some of them even with jobs already, but still lived at home for the moment, but he knew that wouldn’t last for long. That thought clenched his heart tight until it took him a moment to be able to breathe. He didn’t want Lala to be his last ever child.

 

“Are you alright?” Blaise asked him as he set a tray of iced lemonade on the table and pulled him into a hug, kissing his upturned face gently.

 

“Empty nest syndrome again.” Harry said softly.

 

“We’ve told you this before love, to have empty nest syndrome, your nest actually has to be empty first.” Blaise teased him with a grin.

 

Harry chuckled. “I know. I just…I don’t want Lala to be our last child.”

 

“Stop stressing over it Bello, it’ll make it worse. If it’s going to happen, then it’ll happen, but seriously, forty children is more than I ever thought I’d get. I love all forty of them and I love the little ones we have tragically lost as well. Not to mention we’re the G word now.”

 

Harry laughed at that as Blaise pulled a distasteful face.

 

“Speaking of…Xabiere is coming around soon with Oliver.”

 

“Why just Ollie?” Blaise asked.

 

“He doesn’t want Oliver to be left out with the new baby, he’s the one old enough to miss the attention and the playing, so we’re babysitting for a bit.”

 

Blaise snorted. “I’m almost fifty; I’m not used to rushing after an eighteen month old.”

 

Harry smiled. “You need to get used to it again, I could have a heat period soon.”

 

Blaise gave him a look and Harry turned away from it. He refused to believe that his body was infertile, that his baby bearing days were over, it had only been five years, it could still easily happen.

 

“Hey Mum!” Harry turned and he grinned at the handsome twenty-five year old who was trying to hold a squirming, wriggling bundle of excited energy. “Look Ollie, it’s Nana, go over to Nana.”

 

“Nan-nan!” Oliver cried out and immediately reached for him and Xabiere handed his son over happily and with a sigh of relief.

 

Harry cradled that tiny boy tightly and cuddled him as Ollie wrapped arms around his neck and hugged him.

 

“How are you Xabe?” Blaise asked as he stood to embrace him.

 

“Fine, Dad. Just tired. We really, really appreciate you taking Oliver today.”

 

“How’s the baby?” Harry asked with a grin.

 

Xabiere rolled his dark eyes. “Loud. Very, very loud. I haven’t slept in two days! Two whole days!”

 

Blaise and Harry shared a look before the burst out laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?” Max asked as he jogged over after seeing Xabie on the back porch. “You know I like laughing.”

 

Harry calmed and shook his head as Max picked up Ollie and gave him a wet, smacking kiss which made the toddler giggle.

 

“Xabiere thinks he’s hard done by because he hasn’t slept in two days.” Blaise told him.

 

Max chuckled. “Love, we never slept for three months when you were born. You squalled every hour of every day until you found out you could suck your own toes.”

 

Xabe blushed and glared at them. “I’m sure you made that up.” He sniffed.

 

“Go and be with your mate and newborn, we’ll sort out Oliver for you.”

 

“Thanks Mum.” Xabe said and he bent to kiss Harry’s cheek, kissed his son, waved at his Dads’ and then he was gone again as quickly as he’d come.

 

“Come on Ollie; let’s go get you settled down with your Aunts and Uncles!” Max cooed.

 

“That sounds so strange.” Harry shook his head. “They’re about the same age and Lala is still in nappies as well!”

 

“Only for sleeping.” Blaise told him.

 

Harry nodded. “Maybe, but it’s strange to think that Ollie is their Nephew.”

 

Max nodded. “Just wait until we have more children, they’ll be younger than their Nieces and Nephews.”

 

Blaise shot Max a glare and Harry sighed. “Stop fighting silently over my head. Max is right, when we have more children now, they’ll have several Nieces and Nephews who are older than them, we can’t control that.”

 

“Harry…” Blaise said softly.

 

“Don’t even go there.” Harry growled. “Don’t bring this up again. I won’t have it.”

 

“What’s going on?” Nasta asked. He had finally caught Lala and got the five year old smothered in a fresh coat of sun cream and he had let the baby run free again.

 

“Max is encouraging Harry again.” Blaise said, even as Nasta took baby Oliver from Max and started covering him in sun cream.

 

Nasta breathed out deeply. “Can we not fight about this where little ears can hear, please. It’s impossible to tell if Harry will ever have another heat period. He could very easily, so you shouldn’t be complacent and it’s ridiculous to fight over it, so just stop it already.”

 

Harry kissed Nasta happily and he moaned when he was immediately rubbed over with sun cream.

 

“Nas!” Harry groaned.

 

“If you’re coming out in the sun, you’re being protected.” Nasta insisted.

 

“Go and attack Blaise then!” Harry complained.

 

“Blaise has already got sun cream on.” Nasta countered.

 

Harry huffed and stood still…the quicker he let Nasta have his way, the quicker this unavoidable occurrence would go.

 

“Nan-nan!” Oliver toddled to his legs and Harry pressed a hand to the back of his head and cuddled him.

 

“How are you sweetie?” He cooed to the little boy.

 

Oliver turned around and pointed to the little paddling pool they had set up in a shady patch.

 

“Do you want to go in the pool? Come here then.”

 

Harry pulled off Oliver’s little shorts, his socks and trainers and his shirt and Nasta fell on him with even more sun cream to cover the newly exposed parts and Ollie giggled and twisted in his hold.

 

“You’re free, Ollie, free! Run my little grandson, run!” Max cried out as he took the tiny hand and ran with his grandson to the little pool, a very naked Lala jumping in with them.

 

“Max is so strange, why did you pick him again?” Blaise teased.

 

“It’s been over thirty years now love; you get over that some time.” Harry teased right back.

 

“Mum! Dad!” A voice screeched out.

 

Harry turned, automatically sensing the panic in his child, to see one of his special surprises standing over another of them and he ran as fast as his body could go. He dropped to his knees to see a thirteen year old Rus, propped up on one elbow, holding a hand to a head pumping out blood.

 

“Max!” He yelled before he scooped Rus into his arms and rushed to the porch, where the extra-large first aid kit was kept on the ‘adult’ table.

 

Max ran with him and when he settled Rus down onto the table, Max immediately took over flipping open the case and getting out a sealed sachet containing an alcohol wipe.

 

“What happened?” Harry asked Rus as calmly as he could, not wanting to panic his child.

 

“We were just playing, Mum. I tripped and I must have caught my head on something. The blood shocked me and Eris is all, there’s too much of it.” Rus sniffed tearfully.

 

“Head wounds always bleed a lot.” Max said with a kind, reassuring smile as he cleaned up the, surprisingly small cut. “See, this is nothing!” He declared loudly and with a funny face, which made Rus smile. “If this little thing had been on your knee, then you wouldn’t even have noticed it, Emmy.”

 

“Will Rus be okay?”

 

Harry turned to see five pale faces all staring at him and Harry sighed, smiling. “Rus is going to be just fine. Go and play, Rus will join you in a couple of minutes.”

 

The five other sextuplets had to be shooed away another several times before they sulked off as only teenagers could manage and they didn’t go far. They climbed onto the stilted play house and lounged around it, looking over worriedly.

Harry still remembered when he’d first had his sweet six…he’d fully believed he was having a second set of quintuplets, to go into his nest, to go into labour and cut himself open, only to pull out six babies, not the five he had been expecting, he had been very, very shocked and a little panicked if he was truthful.

He had been very unprepared, thankfully he always, always took in extra cord clamps, bottles and formula powder and now he was very glad that he had, otherwise he might have lost Rus, his youngest sextuplet.

Technically he _had_ only conceived quintuplets, but his two oldest sextuplets, Ren and Rey, were identical twins, down to the last freckle and the way they styled their hair, they even had the same taste in clothes and music. It drove him mad sometimes trying to figure out which one was which, but they had little tells that he had learnt to pick up on over the years.

 

“Mummy, is Wus, okay?”

 

Harry picked up his little five year old and kissed Lala softly.

 

“Emerus will be just fine, love.” Harry said as he showed the five year old the table where Rus was sat, having a plaster shoved over the little cut on his forehead that had been dabbed with a healing paste.

 

“Wus-wus okay?” Lala asked softly.

 

“I’m fine, Lars.” Emerus said with a smile. “Just a small cut.”

 

“Wus-wus got small baddie.”

 

“Everything will be fine; you go and play with Ollie.” Harry assured him.

 

Lala rushed off, went down the short slide from the porch to the back garden, little bottom bared for everyone to see as the five year old jumped straight back into the pool, where Nasta was sat in a lawn chair, supervising Oliver who was splashing the water with his hands, screeching loud enough to wake the dead.

 

“Why did you let Draco have a say in that one’s name?” Max groaned. “Lala.” He chuckled.

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “I’m wondering that myself. I was still on the pain potions when I agreed to let him pick one middle name, he had to go and choose Abraxas.”

 

Max nodded. “No more baby naming on pain potions for you.”

 

Harry chuckled. “It was my idea to add Arcturus as his first middle name, to honour Regulus Black who died fighting for the same cause that I sacrificed so much for.”

 

“But, seriously. Larsen Arcturus Lucius Abraxas.” Blaise teased.

 

“It is a strong, pureblood name!” Max said haughtily, impersonating Draco. “He’s just upset that he didn’t notice Lars’ initials spelt out Lala before the birth certificate was registered.”

 

Harry smiled. “It doesn’t matter.” He said. “We’ve had a few children like that. Map, Cap, Lap, Sap, Rad, JCB, Gasp and now Lala. After every one we say we’ll take greater care, but we don’t.”    

 

“It doesn’t really matter.” Nasta told them gruffly from the chair he was sat in; his eyes never once strayed from the two boys in the pool.

 

“No, but still, I’d rather not call my baby cut, crap, ick, puke or something like that, next to those I’d rather have Lala.”

 

“Agreed.” Blaise nodded as he kicked the ball that knocked into his ankle and it went flying down the huge garden, a seven year old Caron and an eight year old Lye went running after it, the both of them panting and red cheeked under their sunhats.

 

Harry checked on his two little Faerie babies and found them both lying on their fronts, staring at one another. He shook his head as he watched the identical twins cock their heads at each other and stare harder.

 

“What in the world are they doing?” He asked aloud.

 

His mates looked to where he was gazing and Max snorted. “I think they’re in love.”

 

“They’re identical.” Blaise pointed out. “Does that mean they’re in love with themselves as well?”

 

“Well they are Nasta’s kids, it could happen.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes and Nasta didn’t dignify them with a response as they giggled together like teenage girls.

 

“You two are as bad as one another.” Harry told them with a grin.

 

“Go and tell those girls that they need more sun cream.” Nasta said.

 

Harry looked over to the group of sun loungers, where his three nineteen year old girls were sunbathing in their new summer bikinis that Draco had said that they weren’t allowed to have, but Max had bought for them regardless.

 

“Oi, my little beach babes, your Dad Nasta says to get your bums over here and get more sun cream on.” Max yelled.

 

“I’m never going to get a tan, Dad!” Neave complained as she and her sisters slowly sat up and picked their way over to where Nasta was sat with half the supermarkets supply of sun protection.

 

“Good.” Nasta said shortly as he handed over the bottle and watched as the grumbling girls layered up their coverage.

 

“Don’t forget your cleavage.” Max teased.

 

“Dad!”

 

“Hey, if you’re going to show it in those scraps you call swimwear, you can damn well slap on some sun cream.”

 

Harry laughed as he watched his girls all scoff at Max, helping one another to get the sun cream on their backs and adjusting the straps on their tiny tops.

 

“There, all done.”

 

“Get a drink before you sit back down.” Nasta ordered.

 

The girls waved to show they’d heard him and they disappeared into the house to get their drinks. Harry looked around the garden, at his kids spread out, sat talking, playing, running around, back to his Faerie babies staring at one another and to his youngest, Larsen and his grandson, Oliver playing in the pool.

 

“Are you happy?” Blaise asked him softly, nuzzling the side of his head.

 

“Yeah. I wish Draco was here with us, but yes, I am happy.” Harry said with a smile.

 

“We’re having Braiden and his mates over for dinner tomorrow. That’ll cheer you up a bit, yes?”

 

“I can’t believe we celebrated his thirtieth birthday last week. Our baby boy is thirty years old!”

 

“He’s not our baby boy anymore, Harry.” Blaise said understandingly.

 

“He’ll always be our baby boy!”

 

“That may be, but he has his own life now, love. His own family, his own children, we have to leave him to get on with it.”

 

Harry nodded. “I know, I just wish we could go back for a little bit, back to when he was still a baby, just so I could hold him in my arms for a little while.”

 

“Do you want to get the baby albums out tonight?” Blaise asked him.

 

Harry just nodded as he snuggled up in Blaise’s arms.

 

“I know you don’t want any more, I just really hope that this is a dry spell and I do have another heat period, that I do have another baby.”

 

“I never said I didn’t want any more children.” Blaise insisted to him firmly. “I just think that we won’t have any more now, that’s all. I think Larsen will be our last.”

 

“You two okay?” Max asked as he came and threw his huge arms around them.

 

“Yeah, Harry wants to get the baby albums out tonight.” Blaise told him.

 

Max nodded. “It’s been a while since we watched the camcorder footage too; maybe we can watch a few of those as well.”

 

“Can we?” Harry asked with a beaming look up to Max, who chuckled deeply and bent down to kiss his mouth, his hands dipping low to get a quick grope of Harry’s bum in his tight cargo shorts.

 

“Of course we can. I love you, Harry, never change and never grow up.” Max told him as he stared into Harry’s beautiful eyes.

 

Harry looked up at him with that cheeky grin that Max loved so very much.

 

“I won’t if you won’t!” Harry told him.

 

“Done deal.” Max said before pressing their lips together to ‘seal’ the deal.

 

“Knock it off you two.” Nasta said with a smirk. “I can’t join in just yet.”

 

He indicated the two boys still screeching and splashing about in the water, playing with little balls, rubber ducks and little fishes that swam when they were touched via a simple charm.

Harry sat himself down on the grass beside the pool and he started splashing about with his son and grandson. True he did want more babies, but he thought in a deep, dark part of his mind, that if he never had a heat period again, if he never had another baby again, then at least he’d already left a huge legacy in his forty intelligent, beautiful, wonderful children, that would carry on in their sweet children. He thought in that deep part of his mind that at least he still had his little grandbabies to love and fuss over and for that, he was eternally grateful.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just a short, sweet scene to make me a little happy. My Grancha didn’t last long. He came out of the hospital on the 5th of June, he died four days later on the 9th. I haven’t felt like writing at all since then, but today I got some inspiration to write after an afternoon spent in the sun being attacked with water by my baby cousin, who has helped me through this horrible time.  
> I hope you can all bear with me, the funeral is in two weeks, I’ll see how I’m feeling then, but at the moment, I’m okay and I’m happy to give you this short, sweet mini chapter and I’ll see about getting up something for Damaged Bodies for those of you reading that. The funeral is going to be hard and I don’t know how I’ll react to that, but for now, I am okay.  
> So I gave you some names and some genders in this chapter, I hope you like that and I hope I cleared up the confusion over the sextuplets being in the baby ages in the top and then Harry saying he only had quintuplets in the actual chapter, but as I said to those who asked in the reviews he and his mates thought that he was having quintuplets because one baby was hidden during the scans, but he actually had sextuplets, so I hope that’s cleared up for you.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you lovelies have enjoyed this short scene, until later,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	40. Shaken Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Christy, a very happy birthday to you lovelie!
> 
> Additional Notes: Another alternate reality but where Harry was born in 1946 instead of 1980, all for the purpose of shoving him with Myron and Aneirin. This fic takes place in 1964 when Harry is eighteen, Myron is twenty and Aneirin is twenty-seven.  
> For the sake of this plot, I’m pushing two prompts together and I’m chucking out Voldemort and saying he never existed, so Lily and James are still alive and so is Sirius, just to make you all happy in this alternate universe.
> 
> \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

Shaken Up

 

Harry clenched his hand into a fist and tried to calm himself down as he listened to the rumble of noise from next door.

It had been a massive shock to wake up early on his sixteenth birthday to find that he could see absolutely everything, he no longer needed the completely round, black framed glasses that he’d had since he was just a child. He loved those glasses, they made him feel closer to his Dad, who also wore round framed glasses and always teased him that though he’d taken his Mum’s eyes in shape and colour, the short sightedness came straight from him. Now he didn’t have that, he’d lost that connection to his Father.

He had sat up when he’d noticed the flesh coloured scales on his arms and had thrown the duvet off of his body to see the same scales all over his legs and stomach. That had been a bigger shock.

When he’d rushed to his en suite bathroom to look at himself properly in the mirror, the wings had ripped out of his back and sprayed his bathroom with blood and thicker things; he’d almost passed out from the shock of that.

He’d gone straight to his parents’ bedroom and had yanked on his Father’s arm. He still remembered those sleepy eyes going wide in horror as his Father noticed the blood covering him from where he’d bitten his lip and his tongue with the four new, dainty fangs in his mouth. Or perhaps it had been the sight of his son with giant, blood covered wings coming out of his back.

It had taken a bit of panicking, a couple of potions and a circular piece of brilliant white parchment, but they finally found out that Harry had taken creature blood from his Father’s blood ties to the Black family. Harry had gotten a Dracken inheritance from his Great-grandfather Cygnus Black.

His Godfather had been told and had cursed his family and the Black blood lines, which included several different creatures and unfortunately included the ‘illegal’, and supposedly dark, Dracken blood.

Harry’s Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, had been told and Harry felt much more reassured after his talk with the Headmaster rather than his talk with Sirius.

He had decided to wait until he was eighteen, when he was out of Hogwarts before he had his ‘mate’ meeting. He couldn’t deal with keeping up his straight O grades if he had a mate and… _babies_.

He had met several Elders though; he’d insisted that they come to his home, so that he could have his parents there with him. He didn’t feel safe or secure enough to go to some stranger’s house for a talk that he likely wouldn’t even understand.

He hadn’t wanted to go to the Dracken meeting that May, but a year later, when he was seventeen, he had gone after being gnawed at constantly by his curiosity to know what these Drackens were like. He’d spent two hours cowering behind his Father as strange men wolf whistled and cat called to him and tried to touch him inappropriately, much to his Mother’s anger and she’d spent the night shouting at the strange men who whistled and cat called at him and giving a good slap to the ones who tried to touch him.

He’d run home quickly after that, sticking close to his Dad, but his bum had still been pinched on the way out, much to his unending humiliation.

He had graduated Hogwarts now, with straight O’s and honours he’d like to point out too, it was almost the end of the August after his eighteenth birthday and he’d decided that he couldn’t put up with the agony inside of himself any longer. He had devoured all the information he could about Drackens in the two years since his inheritance and he was ready to be mated now, or rather he was more ready to be mated now, he thought. His Dracken was really, very angry with him that he’d been inherited for over two years now and still didn’t have any babies to show for it. It was time he made both sides of himself happy.

He sighed sadly. How had his life come down to how many babies he had? How had he gone from a studious, straight O student, graduating in the top five of his year, to spreading his legs for a stranger just to give him children. It seemed…ridiculous to him.

He sighed again and pushed away his fear at this coming meeting, unfortunately it was needed. He turned to his parents and gave them a weak smile to stop them worrying.

 

“Just stay by me, Harry.” His Dad said. “I won’t let them hurt you.”

 

Harry huffed. “Let them try, Dad. I’m not sixteen anymore and this isn’t new to me now. I’m more settled and aware of what will happen today.”

 

“Just don’t stray too far, okay?” His Dad insisted.

 

Harry smiled. Ever since he could remember his Dad had been so protective of him, it was annoying at times. He’d even been worried about him playing Quidditch in his first year when he’d showed an aptitude for it when he’d caught Neville’s remembrall, they’d been friends ever since, but his Dad had almost thrown a fit when he’d heard, especially after hearing that Neville had fallen and broken his wrist, and he had threatened not to let Harry play. It was his Godfather Sirius’ intervention that had calmed his Father down and Harry had found himself as the Seeker for his house team at just eleven years old.

He was thankful that Sirius had helped temper those waters and had gotten his Dad to calm down a bit, at least enough to let Harry play, because Harry really enjoyed playing Quidditch, though his Dad insisted that he came to every game that Harry played in to make sure that he was safe. His Dad was seriously overprotective of him.

Harry never knew if it was because he took more after his Mum and he was small and slender instead of big and broad like most boys or if it was just his Dad, but either way, his Dad had always protected him, had always run around after him, just in case he fell over and he had always kept him close and safe from everything. As such Harry had had a bit of a sheltered life, he wasn’t completely out of touch with the world, but he had always had an early curfew, he was always taught about the dangers of roads, strangers, rivers and to always be aware of everything around him and his Dad had always been there as his safety net and his support rope to help him.

Harry honestly thought that if it wasn’t for his Mum, his Godfather Sirius and Remus, his Dad would have wrapped him up in cotton wool, then bubble wrap and shoved him in a box to keep him safe.

Fortunately his Dad was also one hell of a laugh and he taught Harry how to play and have fun to temper his overprotective streak and he’d taught Harry how to do almost everything he knew how, he’d even built him a treehouse with Sirius, though his Mum told him that it was mostly made with magic, but Harry had a very fond memory from when he was about five or six of running around the back garden, screeching happily as his Dad and Sirius sawed at planks of wood in a cordoned off area that he was absolutely not allowed to go near.

 

“We’re ready for you now, Harry.”

 

Harry swallowed and followed Elder Christophoros Nardovino with his parents into the next room. His Mum put her hand on his lower back to support him and his Dad placed a hand on his small shoulder.

At least he knew now that the reason he was so small and slender was because he was a submissive Dracken, he’d been worried about it when he wasn’t growing or gaining any weight when all of his year mates were. He’d thought that there might be something wrong with him, but there wasn’t, he just happened to have creature blood.

The room of almost two hundred men, with some dominant women here or there, made him want to turn tail and run. They were all staring at him and they were practically undressing him with their eyes! His heart started pounding in his chest and his breaths came marginally faster. He was so glad that he had his parents with him, regardless of how babyish it made him look to bring his parents to his meeting when he was eighteen and supposed to be a fully grown adult now, but he couldn’t have done this without them, he’d always had them there to look after him and support him, he refused to do this without them.

 

“Now, this is Harry, as you can see he is perhaps older than you are used to, he is eighteen years old.”

 

Harry ducked his head away and focused on breathing deeply for a minute.

 

“I don’t like the look of any of them.” His Dad muttered.

 

“James!” His Mother chastised sharply. “This is Harry’s life; Harry’s future, think about him and not yourself.”

 

“I am thinking of him!” His Dad snapped back. “I don’t want my baby boy with any of these men!”

 

“I’m not a baby and I’m not a boy anymore, Dad.” Harry insisted from between them as he peered back out at the mass of muscled men. Seriously why were all of them good looking, huge, muscly men? Was it a prerequisite of being a dominant Dracken or something, maybe the genes only chose good looking  people to be dominant Drackens.

 

“You’ll always be my baby.” His Father insisted.

 

Harry rolled his eyes, but he could only smile at that.

 

“Harry, you said you’d like this to be more of a private, interview like meeting, yes?”

 

Harry nodded. He hated that Elder Nardovino repeated everything he said, but he had wanted one on one meetings, he thought that it would safer if it was just him, his parents, his chaperone with one dominant at a time. There was no way that anything could go wrong if he set out his meetings that way.

Harry had decided not to have the meeting at his home, he didn’t want the dominants to know where he lived and in any case, most of the submissives who had their meetings at their houses were often just trying to show off their wealth, Harry didn’t care about that and he felt safer having this meeting at the Counsel halls, which had been purposefully built for this reason.

Harry was led back into the room he’d started out in and Elder Nardovino walked in with the first of Harry’s prospective mates, from the arrogant set of his mouth and his stone cold eyes, Harry didn’t like him on sight.

 

“…of course I’ll treasure you like the precious gem that you are.” The dominant, Chad, declared soppily.

 

Harry just stared at him incredulously. Did anyone actually fall for the shit that fell from this man’s mouth? His promises of care and love and safety all the while his stone cold eyes glared across at him.

 

“I think I’ve heard enough.” Harry said.

 

“So we can go on a date? I’d like that.” Chad smiled smarmily.

 

“Harry, I don’t…” His Mother started before Harry cut her off angrily.

 

“A date? Why on Earth would anyone want to go anywhere with you? No I do not want to go on a date with you; I want you to stop feeding me your bullshit and leave!”

 

“Harry, watch the vulgarities, please.” His Dad warned him and Harry took in a deep, calming breath.

 

“Sorry Dad. It slipped out.”

 

“That’s alright, I think given the situation and you recognising bullshit when you see it, I’ll let you off with a warning.”

 

Harry hid a grin into his shoulder as Elder Nardovino got rid of Chad with the cold eyes and ushered in the next dominant.

Harry wondered if they’d all queued up outside the door like he was some sort of fairground ride or if the Elder was calling out random names from the clipboard in his hands.

The next ridiculously good looking man that forced his broad shoulders through the doorway was honest to fuck called Heaven. Call me Evan; he insisted quickly after he’d sat down, glaring at Elder Nardovino who had introduced him.

Harry was so insanely curious to just ask him if his name really was Heaven, because if Harry had had a son, he definitely would not have called him Heaven and with how big and bulky ‘Evan’ was, he couldn’t have looked less suited to the name Heaven if he’d tried.  

Harry was determined to give him a chance, even using his preferred name Evan, but it was still no good, Evan had a chip on his shoulder because of his name and he was a dick about everything because of it, which was a damn shame really, because he seemed hardworking and devoted to his job in order to earn money for his submissive and future children, he was just so nasty about everyone else, gossiping to Harry about the other dominants and about their sensitive, private problems that they had or were going through, apparently one dominant had killed his mate and was now back to get another one after she’d given him three children, another one went seeking out recently inherited submissives so that he could rape them and ‘collect their cherries’, but when Elder Nardovino had sat forward in alarm and had asked Heaven to tell him who this dominant was, he went very closed lipped and said that he didn’t know as he’d only heard it from a friend of a friend.

Harry said goodbye to him quickly, and Herbert, Penelope and Marco. Then Jenny, Kieran, Tim and Gareth followed them quickly.

 

“Can I take a break please?” He asked Elder Nardovino. “I…I’ve got to get some air for a minute.”

 

Harry went through the curtained double doors and came out onto the balcony and took in several deep breaths of the warm, summer air, getting the air into his lungs as deeply as he could before letting it out slowly.

 

“You doing okay, Harry?” His Dad asked, coming to stand next to him at the balcony wall.

 

“This isn’t what I expected.” Harry confided. “They’re all so…so…”

 

“Self-absorbed? Tell me about it, I thought I was being subjected to another Friday night back in the dorms at Hogwarts, listening to Padfoot rave about how gorgeous he looked as he made kissy faces at his reflection in a mirror.”

 

Harry burst out laughing, which is exactly what his Dad had wanted, he was sure as he chuckled along with him.

 

“It’s true; you can ask Moony if you don’t believe me, he used to be forced to listen to him as well.”

 

Harry shook his head. “I’m glad he’s not like that anymore.”

 

“He hasn’t been like that since you were born, kid. The minute you started peering up at him through your gluey, baby blue eyes, his hand cupping the back of your head with your damp, black hair he was a changed man. Of course he was terrified of you for the first week or so after you were born, I don’t think he’d ever seen a baby before you came into all of our lives.”

 

Harry smiled. He loved hearing stories about himself as a baby and about his parents as teenagers and children. He felt better, more relaxed and calmer than he had when he’d stormed out onto the balcony to get some air.

 

“How are you feeling now?” James asked him.

 

Harry smiled. “Better. I just hope that with my mood change, the type of dominant changes too.”

 

James snorted. “I don’t like any of those bastards, trying to take my baby boy away from me.”

 

“You know that I have to have a dominant mate, don’t you?” Harry asked quietly.

 

“Doesn’t mean I have to give whoever he is an easy road to you.” His Dad grumbled.

 

Harry smiled. “So you and Mum, you don’t care about…all of this.”

 

“We care obviously, which is why we coached you to keep your meeting back for two years until you’d finished your schooling at least. I can’t pretend that I’m happy that you have such a…limited group of people to pick from. I’ve told you since you were little that the world is yours for the taking and I always meant that. I wanted you to experience everything that life has to offer, I wanted you to work hard, to do well in school, I wanted you to graduate with all Os, I wanted you to get a good career, one that you liked and wanted to advance in and I wanted you to travel all over the world, I wanted for you to fall in love and have children when you were ready, not because you were forced in to it by this creature inheritance! Where you have to pick from under two hundred people instead of the seven billion out in the wide world.”

 

Harry blinked and he looked through the glass doors to see that the curtains hid them from view of the people inside before he slipped his arms around his Dad’s waist and snuggled in.

 

“I know I don’t say it as often now that I’m older, but I do love you. Thank you for wanting all of those things for me and thank you for always being here for me, but at least I knocked a few things off of your list, I did work hard, I did do well in school and I did graduate with all O’s and with honours as well I’d like to add. The future has to play out how it does, but at least you and Mum will always be there for me.”

 

“Of course we will, you’re our little boy and though we don’t like this situation, we knew it was coming for two years and we’re thankful for those two extra years too, where we could get our heads around the idea and you could graduate. It was a shock waking up to find you stood in front of me covered in blood and with those gargantuan, blood covered wings hovering behind you.”

 

Harry grinned. “I said sorry for that. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do and I was scared too, you know, so I did what I always have done when I’m panicked and scared, I go and find you.”

 

“I know, but your Mother and I cleaned you up and since then, this meeting is all we can think or talk about…bringing you here and offering you up like a virgin bride to this room of people, it makes bile crawl up my throat, but we still have to do it, but in the end, Harry, it’s your choice. You pick which one you can see yourself living with for the rest of your life, the one you see yourself having children with and as long as you’re happy, your Mum and I will be happy too, just pick wisely.”

 

Harry nodded. “You know Sirius told me to pick the hottest one.”

 

James snorted. “Of course he did, that’s what he would have done because he wouldn’t want to put in this much effort or patience. Why do you think he’s still unmarried and all of his girlfriends’ only last for a few weeks at the most?”

 

“Are you two alright?” Lily popped her head out onto the balcony and asked them.

 

“Yeah, I think so, are we good, Harry?”

 

Harry nodded and went back into the room and sat back down in the armchair opposite the other armchair, a table separating them. His parents were sat on a settee adjacent to both armchairs with Elder Nardovino.

Harry had set up the room how he’d wanted it yesterday, when he’d come here a day ahead of the dominants to get used to the layout of the halls. Today he’d give anything to be the one sat next to his parents.

The meetings started up again, dominant after dominant, mostly males, but some females too, but Harry found himself disinterested in them, though they were lovely, both in personality and to look at, one of them, who was named Kyra Maddison, frightened the hell out of him, but she was soft spoken and kind, she was just very intimidating and Harry knew he wouldn’t be able to get away with so much as a toenail out of line with her, but she was one of the better prospective mates, it was too bad she was the wrong gender for him.

After several more dominants he was introduced to a Sandor Maddison and Harry got on better with him than he had Kyra, who Sandor had informed them was his younger sister. He was a little more relaxed, less serious and he was the right gender. Harry liked him too. He was the only dominant so far on his mental maybe list.

His parents were quiet all through his meetings, letting Harry play them out how he wanted to, but Harry could tell that they really wanted to speak up and say something several times during the meetings.

 

“I think I need to call it a day, I’m exhausted and hungry.” Harry sighed after his last dominant, Shane, had left the room.

 

Elder Nardovino nodded and stood to tell the dominants that they could retire for the night.

 

“Are you alright, sweetheart?” His Mum asked.

 

“That…that was draining and exhausting and I didn’t see myself with any of them.”

 

“Good, they were all wankers.”

 

“James!” Lily scolded before turning back to Harry. “Let’s get you something to eat and let you relax a bit. I’m sure the right mate for you is here somewhere.”

 

“Your Mother is right, Harry.” Elder Nardovino said. “You’ve only interviewed twenty-eight dominants so far, there are plenty more left.”

 

Harry nodded and followed the Elder’s lead and sat at the small dining room table where house elves served them a quick, light meal that included a very rare, barely cooked steak.

Harry fell on that steak happily and cut it into large chunks before stuffing it in his mouth. He was a fertile, submissive Dracken and he was still a virgin, he hadn’t bonded, so he’d never had a heat period, thus he craved raw and barely cooked meat like some sort of wild animal. He’d always liked meats of all kinds, even before his inheritance, but after it…that was when he’d started hunting for live prey. The urges came suddenly and unexpectedly and he’d never forget when his secret had been busted when he’d accidentally gone out to hunt on the full moon without even thinking.

He’d run into Moony, Padfoot and Prongs in the forest several miles away from his house and he’d literally tackled a tender doe in front of them before tearing into it, the same doe that they had been hunting that night and they’d lain there, frozen watching him attack it as they crouched low to the ground, hidden. Moony had joined him and Harry had let him, which had put him in the werewolf’s good graces and he’d stayed out with them all for the rest of the night.

His Father had gone ballistic when they’d all gotten home the next morning ‘What did you think you were doing’, ‘how could you have not told me’, ‘You could have been injured or killed’, ‘It was a full moon out, what if Moony had attacked you’, ‘How long have you been sneaking out after your curfew to hunt in the forest’ were some of the highlights from his Dad’s two hour rant at him.

Harry said goodnight to his parents and went into his little bedroom, which was between his parents’ room and the Elder’s room, for his protection and safety of course.  

It being August, it was sweltering hot and Harry finally had enough of tossing and turning and he got up to throw open his balcony doors to let in a night breeze. It was just so hot! It was like there was not enough oxygen in the air, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

He crawled back into his bed and kicked the duvet off of himself, he considered kicking off his boxer shorts as well, but he decided to keep them on for now as he flipped the pillow over and tried to get some sleep.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew he was jerking awake as someone touched him, large fingers stroking over his belly and across the skin before the waistband of his shorts. He sat bolt upright and moved to his headboard, switching on his bedside lamp to show an unfamiliar dominant crouched on his bed with him, drinking in his bared body.

 

“You’re not allowed in here.” Harry told him, more bravely than he felt, but then he was a Gryffindor, they were all about courage and bravery, even if it was false bravado.

 

“I couldn’t help it.” The man said with a distinct purr of lust. “When I saw your doors open, it was like an invitation. Flying up here, coming into your room, it was like something from a romance novel. Brushing aside the curtains and seeing you, naked and pale and sweating on the bed big enough for us both, it’s a sign that we were meant to be together.”

 

“I’m not naked and you creeping into my room in the middle of the night is _not_ a sign that we’re supposed to be together!” Harry said angrily.

 

“It is, you just don’t know it yet. Once I get you with my baby, you’ll think differently.”

 

“That’s not real love though, is it?!” Harry demanded furiously. “That’s the false love caused by my feelings for my baby, not for you.”

 

“That doesn’t really matter to me. I’ll have my children and I’ll have you to spread your legs in my bed every night.”

 

“Get away from me!” Harry demanded, groping for his wand on the bedside table.

 

“Your little wand won’t do anything; my scales will protect me from anything you throw at me.”

 

Harry gritted his teeth as he realised that the dominant was telling the truth, his wand was going to be useless to him while this dominant had his scales and wings out, so he pulled his leg back and kicked him right in the chest instead.

Not expecting it, Harry’s foot connected and the dominant rolled over the end of the bed and onto the floor. Harry heard him chuckling darkly from the floor.

 

“Oh, you want to play rough, do you? Well I can do that too.”

 

“Dad!” Harry screamed out. “Dad!”

 

“Don’t bother little boy, I silenced the room while you were still sleeping.”

 

Harry swallowed hard before he stood himself up, keeping his eyes on the crazy dominant. It was obvious what he wanted to do, it was obvious that he had given thought to this because of the silencing ward he’d put up.

He would not go down without a fight, he didn’t care about any pain he might receive, but he was not going to lose out on a family because of this evil fucker who wanted to rape him, impregnate and steal him as a mate.

Harry blinked and the bastard took advantage of that and moved quicker than quick to pounce on him, Harry just about threw up his arms in time and went sailing into a wall with the bastard on top of him, trying to subdue him, but Harry fought hard and kicked out with the side of his foot, aiming for the shin, knowing that the tibia was a very good place to kick if he wanted to get this bastard to let him go.

He grappled and wrestled with the bigger, larger dominant and tried to fight through the pain of having his back slammed against the wall repeatedly. He let out a wordless scream of rage and suddenly there was another dominant there, pulling the attacking dominant off of Harry and kicking seven shades of shit into him, demanding what he thought he was doing and calling him scum before the absolutely huge, hulking dominant threw him back out of the balcony doors and over the side of the stone wall.

 

“Are you alright?” The huge dominant asked him, turning to face him.

 

Harry nodded. “Thank you.”

 

The dominant nodded. “Scum like that makes me sick. Trying to rape a submissive, sneaking into their bedrooms in the middle of the night. It makes me so angry, there’s no need of it and I won’t stand for it.”

 

Harry blinked and rubbed the dribble of blood from his split lip.

 

“I’m Myron Maddison. Let me go and get your parents.”

 

“It’s okay. Thank you Myron, I’m Harry. I think I met your brother and sister yesterday.”

 

Myron nodded. “My older brother and sister. There are a few of us.” Myron said with a wry smile.

 

“How did you know to come up to my bedroom?” Harry asked a little suspiciously.

 

“The idiot warded the room, but the balcony doors were still open. I heard everything. It’s a hot night, so I went for a walk outside, likely why he was outside too.”

 

Harry nodded. “I didn’t realise I’d be attacked if I opened the doors. I just couldn’t get cool or comfortable, so I opened them to try and sleep a little.”

 

“Like I said, some scum bags would take advantage of that, luckily you have dominants like me to protect you.”

 

Harry was about to get angry when Myron winked at him and Harry realised he was having his leg pulled; he huffed and shook his head with a smile.

 

“Let me go and get your parents, they’d want to know about this and I have to tell the Elder what happened with that little scumbag, any dominant who tries to rape a submissive is heavily penalised.”

 

Harry let Myron go and he followed him into the common room where he sat down on a chair and waited, wiping more blood away from his bleeding mouth.

Myron had woken the Elder first, who came out to check on him worriedly before floo calling for security to go and get the unconscious dominant from the grounds.

 

“Harry, this man says you were attacked, what happened?” His Mum asked worriedly, before gasping when she saw his split lip.

 

“Who did this to you?” His Dad demanded, anger burning in his hazel eyes.

 

“Myron took care of him; if he isn’t dead then he’s going to wish he was.” Harry sighed.

 

“What is this Myron doing in your bedroom?” His Dad hissed into the absolutely huge man’s face.

 

“He heard the other idiot attacking me and came to intervene. I left my balcony doors open.”

 

“Why didn’t we hear anything?” His Mum fretted.

 

“He cast a silencing charm on the room, but because he left the balcony doors open too, those in the grounds could hear what was happening and Myron was passing and he heard the fight and came to help me.”

 

His parents just nodded as his Mum came to comfort him and his Dad stood between him and Myron as if he needed protecting from Myron as well. His Mum took out her wand from the pocket of her dressing gown and healed his lip in a second.

 

“Thanks Mum.” He said softly as the stinging cut was healed.

 

“Are you alright now, Harry?” Myron asked.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m fine, thank you for helping me.”

 

Myron nodded and said his goodbyes and left them for the night. Harry watched him go with a smile before he ducked his head.

 

“You don’t actually like that one do you?” His Dad groaned.

 

Harry chuckled. “And if I do? You said I could pick whoever I liked.”

 

“But him?!”

 

“He did just save me from being raped, Dad.”

 

Both his parents swallowed and his Dad came and sat beside him, resting a hand on his leg while his Mum wrapped her arms around his shoulders. They looked pale and shaken; likely from Harry saying so frankly what would have happened to him if Myron hadn’t intervened.

 

“I can’t believe you were attacked and we were right next door.” His Mum said softly. “If Myron hadn’t been passing by…”

 

The three of them shivered.

 

“If I ever get my hands on that little fucker…” His Dad threatened.

 

Harry sighed. “What time is it anyway? I don’t think I got to sleep until two in the morning.”

 

“It’s almost six.” His Mum said softly.

 

“So I’ve had about three hours sleep going back into these damn meetings. Wonderful. Can I have a coffee this morning?”

 

“Okay sweetheart, but only the one, you know too much makes you jittery.”

 

Harry grinned as he remembered exactly how they knew that it made him jittery. An all-nighter when he was fifteen that had been supervised by Sirius, who had let him and his three friends drink pot after pot of coffee while watching eighteen rated action films. Harry was jerking and quivering all over the place the next day with a caffeine overdose.

Harry went to the little kitchenette and boiled the kettle, making himself and his Dad coffee and his Mum a cup of sweet tea.

 

“I think you should get dressed before starting your meetings up again, too.” His Dad said with a smirk.

 

Harry looked down and groaned when he realised that he was still in his boxers, in the excitement and adrenaline rush of the fight, he’d forgotten than he was wearing next to nothing.

 

“I will, I want a shower first though. I feel gross.”

 

“Make sure you eat something too.” His Mum told him.

 

“I will. I think just cereal today would be best, it’s too hot for anything else.”

 

Immediately a bowl of cereal popped up in front of him and Harry chuckled.

 

“Thank you!” He called out, knowing that he could be heard.

 

He ate the simple bowl cereal and finished his coffee before he went to get a shower and to change into something that wasn’t showing off everything he had to offer. Tonight, he was going to get his Dad to cast a cooling charm on his bed, he was not sleeping with those balcony doors open again. He’d more than learnt his lesson.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry sat through another boring morning of meetings, breaking only for lunch, before starting back up with the damn meetings. He didn’t admit it, but he was really hoping to see Myron, but he never, though another one of Myron’s brothers, Cepheus, was at one of his meetings.

 

“I swear I’m going to bash my brain out on this table.” Harry groaned. “They’re so boring! Why do they only want to talk about themselves? When I tried to say something that one shushed me! Like I was a stupid child, I’m not having it.”

 

Harry rested his head back against the chair and curled his legs under himself.

 

“Damn dominants.” He sighed. “At this rate I think I’ll say goodbye to the children and go and find someone that isn’t a Dracken, there’s always adoption right? Or even surrogacy using my partner’s sperm and a donated egg. It’s not like I’d never have children, even if they aren’t mine.”

 

Elder Nardovino looked horrified that he’d even suggest as such, but his Mum smiled and his Dad nodded.

 

“If that’s what you want to do Harry, just make sure that it is. I wouldn’t want you to ever regret this decision when you find you really just want a baby of your own, of your blood, but if you don’t mind, then we can stop these meetings and you can start applying for jobs instead, like you were going to before you had this inheritance.” His Dad told him.

 

“Perhaps a break.” Elder Nardovino said hurriedly and he got up and rushed out as if the hounds of hell were after him.

 

“I think I broke the Elder.” Harry told his parents with a face pulled into mock shock.

 

His Dad laughed. “He seems a bit…stuffy to me.”

 

Harry laughed as well. “I was hoping to see Myron; his brothers just don’t live up to him.”

 

James sighed. “I thought that you might like him a little more than you were letting on, do you see yourself with him?”

 

Harry nodded a bit shyly. “So far he’s the only one too.”

 

Elder Nardovino came back in fifteen minutes later, while Harry was happily drinking a cup of tea and he had three other elders with him too. Harry looked at them curiously.

 

“Harry, these are Elders Trintus, Kirrian and Keller.”

 

“Hello.” Harry greeted softly.

 

“Elder Nardovino says that you are considering giving up on your meetings to find love with a non-Dracken.” The one introduced as Elder Keller said.

 

Harry nodded. “That’s right. All these dominants, they’re horrible.”

 

“I admit they have been a little…selfish, but sure that’s no reason to take such drastic measures.” Elder Nardovino said placatingly.

 

“A little selfish? I can’t get a word in edgeways and when I can, I get shushed! I’m not doing it anymore, sitting here and listening to person after person waffling about themselves, inflating their achievements and thrusting documents under my nose to prove how many galleons they earn a month, as if I’m in the least bit interested! Then with the attack last night…”

 

“Attack?” The one introduced as Elder Kirrian demanded. “You never said anything about an attack Christophoros!”

 

“Yeah, some little slug came into my bedroom last night and tried to force me to mate to him. He took a trip over the side of the balcony.” Harry said with a sniff.

 

Elder Kirrian laughed. “Good boy!”

 

“The attack and these horrible people…” Harry shook his head. “I’m starting to think I’d be better off going out and finding love on my own, instead of trying to pick from a little under two hundred people who I may not even like.”

 

“Would you like to stick out these meetings until you’ve seen all of the dominants?” Elder Trintus asked him.

 

Harry sighed, then shrugged and nodded at the same time. “I don’t know, I suppose I could.” Besides, he hadn’t seen Myron yet, he could at least stick it until he’d had a formal meeting with Myron. It seemed like the huge man was his only choice.

 

“Elders Trintus, Kirrian and Keller are going to be staying with us now Harry, to watch the meetings, is that okay?” Elder Nardovino said.

 

Harry shrugged again. “Do what you like, maybe then you’ll understand how awful these people are.”

 

The next dominant was called in and the Elders were now all sat on a conjured settee on the opposite side to Harry’s parents, but Harry was still in his armchair and still subjected to a boring, mind numbing litany of information about shit he didn’t care about.

 

“What’s wakeboarding?” Harry asked interestedly as the dominant, Marick, mentioned it in his list of numerous hobbies.

 

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand it.” The dominant sneered at him and just like that Harry’s interest waned and he sat back with a huff. He stuck the interview for about five more minutes before he just couldn’t take it anymore.

 

“I think this meeting is over.” Harry sighed.

 

“I haven’t told you my job or my salary yet!” Marick complained.

 

“Yeah, I’m really not interested in that, please leave.”

 

“All submissives are interested in money.” The man sneered at him again.

 

“Do me a favour, the door is behind you, fuck off out of it!” Harry snarled, before turning to his parents a little sheepishly. “Sorry Dad, that one slipped out too.”

 

“That’s okay Harry, if you and your Mother weren’t here, I’d be doing a lot more than swearing at him.” His Dad said while grinding his teeth together.

 

Perry followed Marick out of the door, Hale almost went over the balcony and William would have gone through the window if Harry had cursed him a little more to the left. Sarah was little better, Nicola was as boring as sin and Benny was the worst so far.

 

“I give up.” Harry exclaimed as he collapsed back into his chair. “If being a Dracken means I have to tie myself to someone like that then I’d rather be barren! What’s worse, enduring these _people_ for the rest of my life, living with them and having to put up with them, but having my own children or going out, falling in love, but never having my own children but with the option of adopting, because I know which one I’d rather!”

 

“There has to be one that you like.” Elder Trintus said a little desperately.

 

Harry snorted. “Doesn’t look like it, sorry.”

 

“Do you want to stop for today?” His Dad asked him softly.

 

Harry looked at his watch and shook his head. “No, there’s a few hours left, I might as well try and get as many out of the way as I can.”

 

The next one was just as bad as all the others and Harry was seriously getting disheartened when a very handsome man came in that perked up his interest.

 

“Hello, I’m Aneirin; I’m twenty-seven years old.”

 

“I’m Harry, I’m eighteen.” Harry shrugged and was a little lost when Aneirin didn’t launch into a spiel about himself, his work or his achievements.

 

“So where are you living at the moment?” Harry asked, more to break the ice than anything.

 

“I don’t really have a fixed home, I move all over the world for my work with my children.”

 

Harry frowned. “You have children?”

 

Aneirin nodded. “Three of them, a girl and two boys. I was mated before, she died however.”

 

Harry wondered if this was the dominant who Heaven had gossiped about yesterday, the one who had supposedly killed his mate after she’d given him three children.

 

“How…how did your mate die?” Harry asked softly and as respectfully as possible. His Mother still chastised him for it though.

 

“No, it’s an acceptable question.” Aneirin insisted. “She died in childbirth, bringing our third child into the world, that was four years ago now, so a while back I thought it might be time to get back into the meetings to find another mate, only two years in…I think I made a mistake.”

 

“Do you still love her?” Harry asked.

 

“It’s not that, though I think I’ll always love Lowri, if only for the three beautiful children she gave me, it’s just that all the submissives so far haven’t wanted a man in his late twenties with three kids tagging along.”

 

Harry frowned. “And here’s me thinking the problem is the dominant Drackens, are you saying it’s all Drackens in question? Is it a species thing, or just how they’re brought up?”

 

“What do you mean?” Aneirin asked him curiously.

 

“Well I haven’t liked a single dominant yet, they’re all so…so boring and self-centred, telling me about their hobbies and trophies and their finances, I can’t deal with it and I don’t want any of them as my dominant.”

 

“But Marlow was telling everyone this morning that you’ll be his, that you chose him.”

 

“Who?” Harry asked, looking to his parents with a furrowed brow.

 

Elder Nardovino cleared his throat and looked a little embarrassed. “That’s the name of the dominant who attacked you last night, Harry.”

 

“He attacked you?” Aneirin demanded quickly.

 

Harry just pulled a face. “That idiot isn’t getting anywhere near me. He was thrown over the balcony.” He chuckled a little at that memory.

 

“Why is he still here?” His Father demanded, unable to hold his tongue when he perceived a threat to his son.

 

“Wait…he’s here?” Harry said alarmed.

 

“We believed that you might like to give him a fair chance under different circumstances.” Elder Keller told him.

 

“Give him another…NO! I want him gone, now!” Harry burst out. “How could you have even thought to keep that monster here after what he tried to do to me last night? Do you even understand what it was he wanted to do to me?”

 

“He is a very wealthy, influential pers…”

 

“I don’t give a flying fuck!” Harry roared. “That monster was going to rape me as I slept! I would never have stayed in this building if I’d thought that he was still here after what he did, are you people insane?”

 

“Come on Harry. I’m not having you stay here, under the same roof as the man who attacked you.” His Father insisted, standing up and herding Harry into the safety of his arms. “How dare you keep my son’s attacker here! How dare you diminish what he tried to do to my son and reward that evil bastard by trying to set up a meeting between my son and his attempted rapist. My son is right, you are insane and I will not have my son here while that beast is still in this building!”

 

“If you’d like you could come and meet my children.” Aneirin offered suddenly.

 

Harry eased his anger down and he smiled at Aneirin. “I’d like that; I don’t think you said, how old are they?”

 

“Seven, six and four.” Aneirin said with a smile. “My brother is watching them at the moment.”

 

“Are you sure it’s alright? I know your children will come first and introducing me to them suddenly could distress them.”

 

“My kids are too curious for that, the only problem might be my little one, he’ll be a little shy at first, but he’ll come out of his shell quickly enough, he meets enough of my business associates that meeting new people just doesn’t bother them anymore.”

 

Harry smiled and while his Father blocked the Elders from following him and told them in plain terms that they would not be coming back until the ‘beast’ was gone, Harry went with Aneirin to meet his family. It was a good sign and Harry really liked Aneirin so far.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was introduced to Aneirin’s brother Idris and the three little children who were in the room with him. The oldest, a girl, looked at him intently. She looked absolutely lovely in a white summer dress and a matching headband that was holding her long, jet black hair out of her face, her bright blue eyes narrowed on him immediately.

The littlest boy, dressed in tiny shorts and a tiny tee shirt, dived for his Father’s legs and hid behind him, Harry could just see a little hand that was clutched into the front of Aneirin’s trousers.

 

“Nasta.” Aneirin chuckled. “Come on out.”

 

“Daddy, whose this?” The girl, Angharad, Harry remembered, asked her Father.

 

“This is Harry, sweetheart and his Mummy and Daddy.”

 

“Have you…you know, already?” Idris asked.

 

Aneirin shook his head. “No, there was a problem at the halls so I invited Harry and his parents over to see the kids.”

 

Idris nodded and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. He was a very handsome man Harry noticed, but his Dracken could tell that he was a human, unlike his brother Aneirin, who his Dracken liked much better.

 

“Please sit down, ignore the kids, they’re crazy.” Idris said, the two older children turned on him immediately exclaiming that they weren’t crazy, that he was the crazy one.

 

Harry did as he was asked, but was surprised when the middle boy immediately stopped jumping on his Uncle and came to climb onto his lap and peered up at him.

 

“You have pretty eyes.” The boy informed him. “I want them.”

 

Aneirin groaned and rubbed his forehead with a hand while Idris just burst out laughing.

 

“He doesn’t actually mean he wants your eyes, he wants the same colour.” Aneirin insisted. “Sanex likes pretty colours.”

 

“That’s a relief.” Harry said with a smile as he supported Sanex without making it seem like he was, he doubted the six year old wanted anyone helping him when he was six years old.

 

“I’ll get us tea.” Idris said as he swung his legs down and swaggered out of the room.

 

“How old is your brother?” Lily asked politely.

 

“Twenty-four, he’s a pain really, but you can’t pick your brothers.” Aneirin said with a smile.

 

“How many brothers do you have?” Harry asked as he bounced a giggling Sanex on his knee.

 

“Only Idris, I have a younger sister too, Nerys, she’s twenty-two.”

 

Harry felt really comfortable and relaxed, despite the fact that Sanex pushed himself off of his lap to go and play with his sister on the floor. Idris came back with tea and, just as Aneirin had said, Nasta came out from his hiding place, if burying his face in his Father’s neck was a hiding place that was, soon after and he settled quickly and he seemed absolutely fine as he nibbled a biscuit from the plate brought in with the tea.

Harry didn’t notice the time flying past as he spoke to Aneirin, he only became aware when the kids started whining that they were hungry and that it was dinner time.

 

“I better get this lot fed.” Aneirin said with a loving smile as his children huddled around him demanding food.

 

“We’ll get out of your hair.” Lily said with a smile. “Thank you for a lovely afternoon.”

 

“Say goodbye to Harry.” Aneirin said to his children.

 

The three little children rushed to him and hugged his legs and his waist, saying goodbye, but what made Harry laugh was that Idris crawled to him on his knees and did the same before crawling back to his brother and demanding food.

 

Harry chuckled and said goodbye and then he found himself back in his home and feeling a little bereft.

 

“I can tell by your face that you definitely like him.” James said, nudging his son.

 

Harry smiled, but he couldn’t hide the blush that rushed up his face.

 

“Yes, I did like him. The three children too.” Harry said. “I hope he liked me too.”

 

“He invited you to his home to meet his children.” His Father told him encouragingly. “People don’t do that for people they don’t like.”

 

Harry smiled and he bounced a little. “I want to send him a letter. I’m going to.” Harry decided and he rushed off to his bedroom, leaving his laughing parents behind him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

A week later and Harry was back in the Counsel halls, the idiot who had attacked him, Marlow, was no longer there after a very furious fight with the Elders on his right to be there, which he had promptly lost when a bit of back and forth between the Elders and Harry had revealed that Harry would never consent to mating to him, ever.

In that time Harry had exchanged a number of letters with Aneirin and had even been on a lunch date with him and the three kids, who had been shy and a little quiet at the start, but had soon come out of their shells. Harry had even carried little Nasta when the poor boy had complained that he was tired and had asked Harry to pick him up.

When Harry had arrived back at the halls, he’d demanded another meeting with Aneirin and the Elders had shared a look with one another, but had done as he’d asked.

Halfway through that, where Harry didn’t want their conversation to end, he realised something that made his heart beat faster. He wanted Aneirin. He wanted him and all that came with him, even the three little kid who he’d become attached to.

 

“I think we can stop here.” Harry interrupted softly, ducking his head a little in embarrassment.

 

“You don’t like Aneirin?” Elder Nardovino asked in surprise. It seemed the Elders had placed their last hope on Aneirin.

 

“No, I do like him.” Harry said quickly. “I think…I think I’d like him as my mate. If he’d like me as well.”

 

Aneirin smiled at him. “I’d like that, Harry, I really would.”

 

“Have you bonded?” Elder Trintus asked.

 

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s not like I’ve bonded before.” He frowned.

 

“I believe we have, I’m not just saying that either.” Aneirin insisted. “I remember my first bonding and though Harry and I had a slow, easy connection, there is still something there.”

 

“Does that mean I’ll have a heat period soon?” Harry questioned.

 

The Elders and Aneirin nodded and Harry gulped. He’d read a lot about the heat periods, but he was still a little nervous about it. He was slightly reassured that his first heat period would be with Aneirin, who was an experienced man after all, but not by much, he was still dreading it and wanting it to be over already, yet it came with a heady thrill of anticipation and eagerness, he was after all an eighteen year old man and he was still a virgin, because the Elders had well and truly put the fear of god into him about not sleeping with any non-Dracken, so he hadn’t. Not that he’d really had much time while maintaining his incredibly high grades, but he’d had a few kisses and one poor girl had tried to fumble him with a hand down his boxers when he was seventeen, but they’d both just felt awkward and Harry had been unable to climax.

He was curious and eager to know what real sex felt like, what touching and caressing in the right way felt like and he really, really wanted that with Aneirin.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry hadn’t moved in with Aneirin per se, as he’d found out that the house he’d been to before was Idris’, not Aneirin’s, but Aneirin hadn’t been lying, he had no house, he stayed in hotels all over the world as he travelled for his business and he took his children with him.

Harry had been invited on one of these trips and he’d gotten to share a room with Aneirin while Nasta and Sanex shared a double bed and Angharad had a single bed in her own room.

They hadn’t done anything in that bed…well, that was a barefaced lie, they had touched and kissed and petted at one another, but Harry hadn’t felt confident enough to lie there and have sex with Aneirin when the kids could come in at any moment, so they’d left it just short of actual sex as they’d slipped to sleep, Harry safely cocooned in Aneirin’s arms.

Of course it was dealing with the children that was the hardest for Harry, he hadn’t had much contact with babies before, in fact he was still the baby of the family at eighteen, so he was woefully unprepared as he helped Nasta cut up the watermelon cubes he’d asked for after his breakfast of unsweetened porridge, tried to keep Sanex in his seat as the six year old wriggled and twisted and tried to get under the table and fending off Angharad’s probing questions. Of course the biggest problem he had was the language barrier, he’d never thought of himself as stupid, but then he’d never even thought of learning a second language, he only knew English, but Aneirin and his three children kept having conversations over his head in Welsh, a language that sounded like gibberish while they choked around a hardboiled sweet stuck in their throats. Little Nasta even knew French, Polish and Spanish. He was FOUR!

Harry kept in regular correspondence with his parents, who worried like hell for him, naturally, as this was technically his first ever attempt at ‘flying the nest’ and because he was a Dracken and had a mate now, it wasn’t likely that he’d ever be going back.

Aneirin went to meet with his business associates and Harry was left with three anxious, very energetic kids who wanted to go out and explore. So Harry took Nasta’s tiny hand, kept a sharp eye on Sanex and kept Angharad close as he took them out, his heart beating nervously in his chest, after all these weren’t his kids, if anything at all happened to them…he swallowed, he wouldn’t think like that, nothing would happen, how much trouble could three kids be anyway? Some Drackens had hundreds and they dealt with it alright.

Harry was overall glad that Aneirin’s business had taken him to New Zealand and not somewhere that didn’t speak the lone language that Harry knew as he listened to the man shouting and cursing at him after Sanex had walked on his ‘artwork’ it looked like toddler graffiti to Harry, but he didn’t point that out to the raving man. Honestly it was his fault for doing his artwork on the floor, Sanex was a six year old boy, he was going to run all over the place.

 

“I didn’t mean to.” Sanex insisted tearfully as he clung to Harry’s leg. Nasta had long since disappeared behind Harry for protection.

 

“Right, I’ve heard enough.” Harry snapped as he looked to Sanex’s upset face. “It’s your fault for leaving your ‘priceless’ artwork all over the floor! He’s a child, there are children all around here, if you didn’t want to run the risk of something happening to them then you should have stayed at home or gone to a proper studio. I will not let you pin the blame for your lack of thought on a six year old boy! Good day.”

 

Harry swiped Nasta up into his arms and took hold of Sanex’s hand, making sure Angharad was still with him, he stormed off at a steady pace in one direction until he felt he was far enough away from the idiots.

It was by pure luck that Harry found the secluded field with the play park on it.

 

“Can we go and play? Please.” Nasta begged him, his hazel-gold-green eyes wide and imploring.

 

Harry smiled and put him down. “Okay, but only for an hour or so and be careful!” He shouted after them as all three cheered and ran full pelt towards the playground.

 

Harry followed after them and took note of who else was in the park, there weren’t that many, which was surprising as it was a clear day, it was almost September, and granted it was the Winter months in this part of the world, but it was hardly woolly hat and gloves cold, or at least he didn’t think it was as he didn’t even have a jacket on.

He made sure he knew exactly where his three young charges were at all times, particularly Nasta, as the youngest, but the little boy was charging around the playground, climbing everything with only a slight stumble here or there, but absolutely no hesitance or fear.

Harry took several photographs for Aneirin with the camera he’d brought on the trip with him, just like a tourist, but he still didn’t care.

An hour passed and then two before the kids started coming to him for the snacks he was carrying in the bag slung over his shoulder, it was then that he thought it was best they were getting back for dinner.

 

“Come on you three!” He called out. “Sanex, Angharad! Come on.” He called again as Nasta immediately rushed to him and held his arms up.

 

Harry smiled and picked him up, marvelling at the change from the very shy boy who had hidden from him automatically the first several times that he’d visited.

Angharad had a hold of Sanex’s hand and they trotted over him and Harry took Sanex’s other hand, leading them away from the park and back to their hotel, which Harry had made double sure he had memorised the name and location of. He still got lost though and with three hungry, now tired, children as well, he was forming a headache.

 

“Okay, okay, I’m usually good with directions.” He insisted.

 

“No, you’re lost.” Angharad told him with a frown. “I want Daddy.”

 

“I know sweetheart, I’m trying to get us back. Damn my anger issues, storming off from that idiot artist, I lost my way.”

 

Harry doubled back and went a different way, the direction he’d been certain the hotel wasn’t in, and low and behold, Harry started seeing familiar monuments, he huffed. “Of course it was the one way I thought it wasn’t.” He muttered to himself.

 

When the hotel came into view, he almost cheered. He got the kids in and up to their room, where Aneirin was sat doing paperwork, trying to look calm, but Harry could see the edge of tension in his face. He swallowed. Maybe he hadn’t been allowed to take the kids out of the hotel?

 

“There you are! I was worried.” He said as he hugged Angharad and Sanex as they rushed to him with their arms outstretched. Nasta struggled to be put down and Harry bent to do so and he rushed to his Father too, Harry smiled at them, but he was worried and nervous about what was going to happen next.

 

“Go and get washed up for dinner, all three of you, you’re filthy. You can tell me what you did over dinner.”

 

The three kids all hurried off to the bathroom and once they were alone Harry found himself crushed to a chest.

 

“I was so worried!”

 

“Why? I didn’t take them that far, I promise; I just got a little lost on the way back.”

 

“About you!” Aneirin told him, taking away Harry’s nerves and anxiety and making him confused instead.

 

“Why me? I thought you were worried about the kids, I didn’t ask permission to take them out and…”

 

“Permission? Why would you need permission? It was a given that they’d want to explore the area, it’s what they always do when in a new place. I was worried because our bond is new and we haven’t had a heat period yet. In this stage any new dominant could take you away from me.” Aneirin said as he hugged him closer.

 

Harry smiled and relaxed as he realised he wasn’t in trouble for taking the kids out and that Aneirin’s worry was for their incomplete bond, not for his lack of parenting skills. He cuddled closer and inhaled Aneirin’s scent, feeling happy and warm.

 

“Stop cwtching and go wash up!” Angharad’s voice broke through their cuddling fest and they broke apart slowly to see the three kids watching them.

 

Aneirin raised a black eyebrow at his daughter. “What was that young lady?”

 

Angharad looked a little sheepish and she shuffled her feet. “We’re hungry Daddy, really, really hungry.”

 

Aneirin smiled. “Come on then, let’s go down to eat, Harry and I already washed up.”

 

“Looked more like you were cwtching.” Sanex grumbled as he almost bounced his way down to the hotel restaurant.

 

Harry and Aneirin shared a look as they followed the kids down to a free table and they all ordered for themselves, except for Nasta, who ducked his head and wouldn’t answer the waiter. Harry slipped down and whispered into his ear, asking him what he wanted and when Nasta pointed to the menu, Harry read it out to the waiter before retaking his seat, sliding his gaze to Aneirin when he placed a hand on his leg and squeezed. Aneirin was smiling at him.

 

“What?” Harry asked softly.

 

“Nothing, I’m just so glad that you’re so good with them. It makes me feel more relaxed and less stressed to know that you like them and that they like you.”

 

Harry smiled. “Of course I like them, they’re very easy to love and they’re good kids.”

 

“Yeah, they are and they like you too.”

 

“How do you know?” Harry asked a little unsurely.

 

Aneirin snorted. “Do you think they’d talk to you, listen to you or interact with you if they didn’t like you? You should have seen them with Idris’ last girlfriend, the three of them completely stonewalled her, they even started speaking just in Welsh so she was the only one who couldn’t understand them. I made the mistake of letting her babysit them for an evening as Idris, Nerys and I went out with our parents to celebrate their anniversary. We came back late to find all three kids still up and her in tears sat halfway up the stairs. She finished with Idris a week later.”

 

“So they do like me.” Harry said with a grin.

 

“They really, really like you.” Aneirin told him and Harry beamed widely. He was very happy to dive into the conversation, telling Aneirin about the so called artist, about the playground and the photos he’d taken, Aneirin smiled at all four of them as they conversed with one another too over their meal, he finally had another little family again instead of the broken one left behind after Lowri’s death. He’d never forget her nor stop loving her, but he could see himself loving Harry very, very easily as he took his place alongside her, never behind or in front of her and never on top of her, but beside her. He knew that she would have wanted him to be happy again and Harry was kind and caring to their children, they would not be forgotten or replaced when he and Harry had children together, Harry wouldn’t exclude them, never and Lowri would have wanted someone like Harry to be there for their babies. He was sure of it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry’s heat period came exactly when Aneirin had told him it would, give or take a day. Aneirin had been watching him closely and watching his eating habits and the moment he had switched from meat to grains, he’d known his heat period was getting close, when Harry had gone from purely grains to fruits and vegetables as well; he’d warned Idris and had started setting up accommodation for the kids for several days.

When Harry had started eating just fruit and vegetables, that was when they knew his heat period was imminent, he was on two month heat cycles it seemed.

Harry had barely gone to bed when his first ever heat period hit him. He’d literally crawled into the bed while Aneirin was in the shower and he’d had a flush of heat warm his entire body. He frowned and touched his face and neck, he felt overly warm, so he’d taken off his pyjama top and left just the bottoms on as he snuggled into the bed.

He’d soon found himself uncomfortably hot and he’d kicked the duvet back off of himself, he knew then what was happening and he tried to call out for Aneirin, but all that came out was a ragged moan.

He twisted on the sheets and panted, the sweat was beading all over his body as he rolled, he was far, far too hot. He kicked off his pyjama bottoms and then his boxer shorts, leaving himself bare on the sheets, but still he was too hot, his mind started slipping to his baser, more instinctual brain and he lay on the bed, touching his sweat soaked body, feeling how very sensitive it was and then the haze dropped over him, he called out to Aneirin in a guttural part roar, part purr and his mate was just there, soaking wet from his disturbed shower, dripping water onto their bed, his skin and muscles slick with moisture, his hair plastered down to his head, but Harry didn’t care as Aneirin caught him up into his arms and moved him around, holding him still, pinning him down, before sliding into him with one thrust and his breath caught on a gasp in his throat at that first penetration.

He moved slowly, testing against his mate on top of him, pushing his hips back up into his mate, feeling the initial sensations fade away under the pleasure.

They didn’t stop, he orgasmed and his mate flooded his insides, but they didn’t stop, his mate didn’t even pull out of him, he just rested on him and once they’d gotten their breath back a little, they started again, then again and again and again. They barely stopped for a break and his mate did not pull out of him.

He began to feel weak and tired, achy and drained, but his mate didn’t let up, he just continued to fuck him in a haze of pheromones and lust.

He didn’t know when it stopped or how long it had even been, but one minute he was laying on the bed, letting his mate do as he pleased, the next he was blinking open his eyes and shifting on the bed. He barely remembered the heat period; he had flashes of Aneirin on top of him, of mindless pleasure and his body aching.

He slipped himself out of the bed. The sheets were clean and fresh, his body was clean and pink, every inch felt scrubbed clean, but hell was he sore, so fucking sore.

He heard Sanex laughing and he smiled as he settled back down on the bed. The kids were home, which meant he’d probably been asleep for a few days.

The door creaked open and a little head popped around.

 

“Hello Nasta.” Harry croaked out, his throat raw.

 

“Daddy said you were sleeping, but I wanted to come and see you, Anga said it’s been over two weeks since we’ve seen you.”

 

“Come here squirt.” Harry said tiredly, half-heartedly lifting his arm in invitation.

 

Nasta needed no more encouragement as he hefted himself up onto the bed and snuggled into Harry, the duvet separating them, which Harry was grateful for as he was naked under the duvet.

 

“I missed you. Anga says it’s because you play with us and make us laugh.”

 

Harry smiled and held that tiny body closer. “I missed you three too.” He lied. He couldn’t remember enough of the last several days to have missed anyone, to him it felt like he hadn’t been anywhere, but to the three kids, missing their Dad for ten days would have seemed like a lifetime, especially after being with him practically every day for the last four years.

 

Harry dozed in and out of consciousness, Nasta napping in his arms, at least until he heard hissing. He opened his eyes and peered around the room.

 

“Nasta?! Where are you?” Aneirin was hissing outside the door as quietly as he could.

 

“Nyerin.” Harry slurred out.

 

He heard his mate sighing and the door opened. He did a double take when he saw Nasta cuddled up with him. He let out a bigger sigh and shook his head.

 

“I should have known. All he’s been asking since he came home is where you are, you’re his new best friend.”

 

Harry smiled.

 

“How are you feeling, I tried to let you sleep as long as you needed, it seems you’re still a little tired.”

 

“I’m okay, sore and achy, but I’m okay.” Harry said with a smile as Nasta nuzzled in tighter to him, woken slightly from his sleep by their talking.

 

“Come on big boy.” Aneirin said as he lifted Nasta up into his arms and the sleepy four year old rolled over in his Father’s arms and snuggled into his chest. “I’ll go and put him to bed and then I’ll come back, don’t move.”

 

Harry grinned as he rested his head back against the pillow and rested until Aneirin came back into the room and lifted him up like he had Nasta and carried him into the bathroom.

It was only as his belly was crunched up that he realised exactly how much he really needed to use the bathroom. He struggled in Aneirin’s arms and his mate chuckled as he all but fell into the toilet in his need to empty his bladder. He didn’t even care that Aneirin was there, watching him, he just wanted the awful, agonising pressure gone from his bladder.

 

“Oh that’s so much better!” Harry groaned.

 

Aneirin chuckled again. “I’ll bet, you haven’t had a piss in thirteen days.”

 

Harry smiled. “It feels like heaven.”

 

Aneirin let him wash his hands before leading him out to the living room of the hotel. He eased himself down onto the settee and gritted his teeth as Sanex and Angharad decided to leap on him and cuddle in, exclaiming how much they’d missed him and reminded him that he’d promised to bake ‘real’ cakes with them. Apparently they’d never baked real cakes from scratch before. It was a very fond part of Harry’s childhood, remembering standing on a stool next to his Mum in the kitchen, his own little apron on as he ‘helped’ her make cakes. He wanted to share that with Angharad, Sanex and Nasta too.

One thing was for certain though. He had to convince Aneirin to find a permanent home that they could live in, he wanted the kids to be settled, to have one fixed abode, a family home, plus he needed a familiar, safe place to nest in, he could hardly nest for a couple of months in a hotel after all, though he was sure he’d drive Aneirin crazy if he tried.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry settled so easily with the Delericey family, but it came all too soon where he had to go back to the Counsel halls to find his grounding mate. He’d known it was coming, but he really didn’t want to leave the kids when he was getting so used to them and they him. In fact he hated it as they cried and pleaded with him not to go, Aneirin too, who refused to leave him on his own, despite Harry insisting his parents would be there too. Aneirin refused to leave his new submissive mate who was potentially pregnant with his fourth child.

Harry endured the meetings, but he’d set them up differently, this time he had a settee and he reclined, happily relaxed, on Aneirin, who wrapped him up with an arm around his shoulders as he listened to the spew of hobbies, awards, achievements, salaries, monthly wages, luxurious properties…he was bored stiff.

 

“Are you sure I can’t just keep Aneirin?” Harry asked.

 

“You heard the Elder, Harry.” His Mother told him patiently. “You need a grounding mate to be completely happy and healthy, that’s what we want for you.”

 

Harry sighed. “I know, I know, but this seems hopeless! Aneirin was the only decent man here and I already have him as a mate, I can’t pick him twice.”

 

“How about Myron?” His Father asked. “You liked him.”

 

Harry frowned. “Hmm, I did. I forgot him when I found Aneirin. He did save me that night as well; I suppose it couldn’t hurt to ask him to come in, can it? He has to be better than his brother Cassander. What do you think?” He asked Aneirin.

 

“I think that sounds like a plan.” Aneirin said, kissing his forehead.

 

Harry smiled. “Okay, get Myron in here then. I’ll see if I can stand him for more than five minutes when he’s not saving me from beasts.”

 

Aneirin tensed, but that was the only indication he gave of hearing again about Harry almost being raped, he hated being reminded of it. He relaxed again quickly enough.

Harry smiled as the formidable hulk of a man came into the room to join them, forcing himself into the, now tiny seeming, armchair.

 

“Hi Myron.” Harry said, suddenly shy.

 

“Hello again Harry. Aneirin, it’s good to see you.”

 

“You too, Myron.”

 

“You two know one another?” Harry asked curiously.

 

“We’ve known one another for a while now and Myron is rapidly making a name for himself in his Father’s company. We have often worked together.”

 

Harry was happy enough to let Myron and Aneirin talk and joke to one another casually over his head, the air was relaxed and Myron didn’t once slip in how much he made or how ‘important’ he was. Harry liked that.

 

“Do you want to break for lunch Harry?” His Father asked.

 

Harry considered that and then he smiled. “I want to go out for lunch, with Aneirin and Myron.”

 

“We have to accompany you, Harry.” Elder Trintus said quickly.

 

“Do you have to sit at the same table?” Harry asked with a frown.

 

“No, not at the same table.”

 

“Then that’s fine.”

 

“Do you want the kids there?” Aneirin asked.

 

“That’s up to you.” Harry said. “If you feel comfortable with them joining us, then I’d love for them to, you know that, I love those little buggers.”

 

“Myron has met them a few times before when we were doing business together, you know I often take them with me.”

 

“How old is the little boy now? Nasta.”

 

“He’s four now. Sanex is six and Anga is seven, though her birthday is rapidly coming up. Three weeks, damn the time flies.”

 

Harry smiled. He’d already gotten her, her present. He knew she was going to love it because she’d mentioned before that she’d wanted it and after making sure it was alright with Aneirin, he’d bought it for her.

Harry got big cuddly cwtches when Aneirin arrived at the restaurant with Idris and the kids. Myron scowled at Idris who had started on poking and picking at him the minute they saw one another. Harry got the feeling that Myron did not approve of Idris’ behaviour and Idris didn’t care and instead amplified his behaviour just to annoy Myron.

Of course Harry grinned when Nasta hid behind Aneirin when he first saw Myron, but again he was surprised that Sanex climbed onto Myron’s lap and happily started chatting away at him. He wondered if Sanex had ever had stranger anxiety or if he just felt safe and secure enough to act this way because his Father was there.

They settled down, ordered their food, Nasta who was sat next to Harry, pointed at what he wanted from the menu and Harry ordered it for him and they enjoyed a relaxed, happy meal, listening to the children chatter and tell them about the pictures they’d drawn or the games they’d played. It was adorable and Harry enjoyed every moment of it as he asked questions to Myron about his life, definitely not about his hobbies, any trophies he might have had or his income. He’d had enough talks of that to last him a lifetime.

When it was time to say goodbye, Harry was sad to see Myron leave. He’d liked him and despite his mature, no nonsense outlook on everything, Harry had enjoyed himself and he’d happily imagined them as a proper family, just the three of them and the three, maybe four, kids out for a lunch at a restaurant, just like normal. It made him feel all fuzzy inside as he carried a sleepy Nasta out of the restaurant and slipped his arm through Aneirin’s elbow for him to Apparate them back home, or rather back to Idris’ home. They really needed their own place.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry ignored all the other dominants in favour of Myron, something which they really didn’t like as they knew that he was looking for a grounding mate, which essentially came down to him needing his last mate and they knew they were going to miss out if he chose Myron over them.

But still, he paid a lot of attention to Myron, spoke to him at length about the important things and then realised that no one was going to turn around and tell him that he’d found his mate, it was up to him to tell them and with that in mind, he just blurted out that he wanted Myron to be his grounding mate…right in the middle of lunch, with all the Elders, Myron and his parents there.

He groaned and buried his face in his hands, he could feel the blush crawling from his cheeks down his neck and then further when he heard everyone, even Aneirin, laughing at him.

 

“I’m going to go and jump off of the roof now.” Harry said quietly.

 

Aneirin kissed his cheek and pulled him into a hug.

 

“No need for that, Harry. It’s alright, I think you just took us all by surprise with the rapid topic change, but I would say that finding your dominants is always on your mind, isn’t it?”

 

Harry nodded. “Since I turned sixteen really, but I could push it away easily when I had school and Quidditch to occupy my mind, but since graduating and turning eighteen, finding my dominant hasn’t ever been that far from my mind and when I mated to you, knowing I had a time limit to find my next mate…it sort of put an edge of urgency on everything.”

 

“You’re not just picking Myron because you feel panicked, are you?” His Dad asked him quickly.

 

Harry immediately shook his head. “No, you know I liked Myron before I’d even met Aneirin. I still like him and we get on well, Myron and Aneirin get on well and the kids like him. That’s what matters to me, so I want Myron to be my grounding mate, if you’d like to that is.”

 

“I really wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t.” Myron told him with a smile.

 

Harry’s grin was a hundred kilowatts and he could feel it hurting his cheeks, but he still didn’t care as he shyly stood and gave Myron a chaste, very shy kiss to the cheek, which made him chuckle deeply.

 

“It’s been a pleasure helping you, Harry.” Elder Keller told him.

 

“Thank you for all of your help.” Harry replied. “I wouldn’t have known where to start without your help.”

 

His Mum beamed in pride as the Elders praised how polite and respectful he was and his Dad just grinned proudly. Harry smiled, he liked pleasing his parents and he liked making them happy and proud, they weren’t too happy that he was going to make them grandparents at the tender age of thirty-nine, but it made Sirius deliriously happy and he’d taken to calling his Dad Granddad James, depending on what mood he was in this could garner a laugh or two, a happy smile, or several hexes. He’d also called his Mum, Nana Lily, but never within her hearing range.

Harry looked down at his belly and wondered, not for the first time either, if he had actually made his parents grandparents, if he was actually a budding Mother as he sat here with conversations passing over the top of his head. He didn’t know if he wanted to be pregnant or if he didn’t, but his Dracken was overshadowing everything by pumping him with happy hormones at the idea of being pregnant with his mate’s baby. It made a very nice difference from the burning rage it had been for the past two years while he’d pushed off his meetings and the inevitable first baby.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was very happy. They didn’t need a house anymore, because Myron already had one and he had all but dragged them into it when Harry had tentatively asked if they could live there.

The kids were still at their Uncle Idris’ at the moment, as Myron’s house was definitely not child proof and he even had a floor level cupboard filled with bottles of Firewhiskey, some of which were very easy to open. Aneirin had gone mad when he’d seen the amount of Firewhiskey Myron had in his house and Harry had counted at least fifteen bottles when Aneirin had tipped them all down the sink and threw away the bottles. Myron hadn’t said a word as he watched Aneirin pouring away what had to have been a very expensive stockpile of Ogden’s finest vintage aged Firewhiskey, but he’d had a strange sort of smile on his face that Harry thought was rather odd.

Between moving in, settling down, making sure the kids were calm and comfortable and not at all uncomfortable in the new house, planning, preparing and then holding Angharad’s eighth birthday party, everything sort of slipped into a routine, where Myron and Aneirin left in the mornings for work, leaving Harry to take care of Anga, Nex and Nasta, winging most of it, as he was still in the ‘learning curve’ of childcare, Aneirin would sometimes come home in the afternoons, Myron sometimes popped in for lunch, but Harry wouldn’t really have time to sit down and speak to them until the evening and that was if Myron’s work didn’t run late to where he sometimes didn’t come home until well after midnight.

Like before, when he showed signs of his heat being imminent, Aneirin explained to the kids what was going to happen, though obviously not giving them any details, before he packed them off to their Aunt Nerys this time, as Idris was away on work related business in Sweden.

It had been two months since his last heat with Aneirin and since then, well their sex life hadn’t exactly been rabid, not with Aneirin’s work and the three kids, but they had had a sex life, so Harry was a little more confident and a little more comfortable with the idea, it’s just…well, Myron was huge…everywhere.

The first time he’d seen Myron without clothes on, he’d stared until his mates’ laughter had broken through his transfixed gaze and he’d coloured up and gone shy. At least until Myron had taken his hand and put it on that huge piece of his anatomy and helped Harry touch and stroke it, then curiosity and lust had taken over.

Now as Harry climbed into bed, he’d reached the point where exactly two months ago, he’d fallen into his heat period, only it never came. He frowned and bit his lip, looking at the clock. He was sure that this was the time his heat had come two months ago, he and Aneirin had watched the end of that film, had come up at eleven where Aneirin had gone for a shower and Harry had changed for bed, he’d climbing in to the bed and that was when his heat had hit him, only it was half eleven now.

 

“My…my heat is today, isn’t it?” He asked a little unsurely as Aneirin climbed into the bed and pulled him close, Myron did the same on the other side of him.

 

“Yes, why do you…Harry, your heat won’t hit at exactly the same time, love.”

 

“It won’t?” He asked, some tension in his body draining away at that.

 

“No, it could hit you in a minute, in the next hour, in the morning or tomorrow night, we just know that it will hit some when in the next twenty-four hours.”

 

Harry let out a breath and nodded, feeling much more reassured now as he snuggled down in the bed.

 

“Did you find those Christmas decorations?” Aneirin asked Myron.

 

Myron grunted. “Some of them might be useless; they’ve been in that attic since my Aunt Catherine gave them to me when I moved in. Apparently no house should be without Christmas decorations, even though I always went home for Christmas.”

 

“I’ll take the kids out after this heat period now and I’ll let them pick some that they like.” Harry said sleepily.

 

Aneirin laughed. “You’ll be buying out half the shop’s Christmas stock if you do.”

 

“Doesn’t matter.” Harry said. “If they want to plaster every inch of the house in tinsel and baubles, I say let them. Christmas is all about the kids, let them have their fun, it’s only for a few weeks.”

 

“They’re excited enough as it is.” Aneirin said with a happy smile. “And with you baking all sorts of Christmas treats…well I think you’re their new favourite person. Thank you for letting them help with your gingerbread house, even if they did ruin it.”

 

Harry snorted, keeping his eyes closed. “I only made it for them, it wasn’t ruined, it’s just unique. It’s special, handmade and they were so happy to help decorate it. I wasn’t going to slap their wrists and tell them not to touch it, I wanted them to cover it in icing and smarties and edible glitter, it’s why I made it in the first place, it was something that we could do together.”

 

“Helps that it tasted so good too.” Myron rumbled.

 

“You better have been eating the spare parts and not the actual house.” Harry warned.

 

“I was. Nasta brought me a bit that he’d also decorated just by himself, I was assured. Looked like he’d dipped it in the icing bowl and threw sprinkles on it, but it tasted wonderful.”

 

“That’s exactly what he did.” Harry said with a smile. “I had to throw away the plate of sprinkles after that and get more because he’d left globs of icing all over it and they were all stuck together. Naturally Angharad’s section of the house is the neatest; she put some thought into it. Sanex just covered his section in as many sweets as he could find, he even used the left over squares of cooking chocolate when my back was turned.”

 

His mates both laughed sleepily and they lapsed into silence, it was a few weeks until Christmas, they’d been shopping like crazy to get the kids everything they wanted and they were going to decorate Myron’s house as soon as this heat period was over, this Christmas was going to be magical, in more ways than one.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry’s heat hit him just before midday and he was naked, spread eagled on the tiled kitchen floor, trying to cool himself down, when his mates reached him after his call.

Aneirin got to him first and pushed his way inside his body, Myron was half a heartbeat behind him and just pushed himself into Aneirin, who reacted much like Harry did, throwing his head back and spreading his legs wider to make more room.

Harry wrapped himself around his mates and moved his hips to meet his mate’s as the red haze descended on his mind again. He didn’t think, he didn’t need to as Aneirin finished within him and rolled off to make way for Myron, who as his top dominant had the right to dominate the both of them.

He growled as his top dominant pushed into him and he wrapped himself around his mate, clamping his legs closes as much as he could around the thick waist of his mate and he clenched his claws into his mate’s back, feeling the pinch of claws at his hips from the mate above him.

He moved with his mates, as they took him in turn, sometimes one of them taking the other as he was fucked as well, but he stayed on his back, his wings cushioning him from the hard tile, and he whined whenever he felt he wasn’t getting enough of his mates’ attentions.

Like the last time, he started feeling weak and drained as his mates carried on, switching over and with the both of them, there was no break, just a few minutes between as they kissed and shifted around one another or even rarer, when they moved him to a different position or to a different room.

He let them do as they pleased, growling and whining when he felt he hadn’t been filled in a while, digging his claws in when they still didn’t respond and then after they still didn’t fill him, he let out a cry and sunk his fangs into the nearest body part he could find. That got his mates’ attention and he was happily filled again, despite his waning energy and the lack of ability to feel his lower body.

The red haze swallowed everything and days passed slowly and they were all tired at the end, where they just collapsed and slept, all cuddled together in a big, messy pile of sweaty bodies covered in cum.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry woke up slowly, lethargically and he groaned as he shifted himself and realised that it had set off a chain reaction where he consciously noticed that he really, really needed the bathroom now.

He fell out of the bed, caught his foot on Myron’s ugly rug and stumbled forward a few steps where he stubbed his toe on the leg of the bed before he made it to the bathroom and promptly slipped on a piece of cellophane left on the bathroom floor. It was a wonder he’d ever made it to the bathroom in time, but he’d started weeing before he’d reached the toilet, unable to hold himself back any longer, though luckily not enough to have caused an accident, but enough so that he knew he wanted a shower before he did anything else.

 

“Are you slaughtering a herd of elephants up here?” Myron asked as Harry was just starting the water for the shower.

 

“I really, really needed the bathroom.” Harry told him.

 

“Are you alright? Did you fall?”

 

“I fell twice and stubbed my toe.”

 

“You fell over? Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine, stop worrying; stubbing my toe hurt the worst. Oh, there’s a piece of cellophane on the floor, I slipped on that, can you pick it up please?”

 

“Your foot found this tiny edge of cellophane and it was enough to send you to the floor hard enough to shake the lights downstairs?” Myron asked incredulously.

 

“Piss off!” Harry replied.

 

“Watch your language.”

 

“Hand me a mirror so I can see my mouth better, then.” Harry retorted sarcastically.

 

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, Harry.” Myron told him.

 

“At least I have some form of wit, unlike you.”

 

Myron snorted and left and Harry sunk down in the shower, his trembling legs unable to hold him up and he reclined back against the bath and let the water rain down on his aching legs.

Hands were touching him and he jerked awake to peer blearily at Aneirin, who was smiling at him.

 

“We were worried when you surpassed an hour in the shower, did you fall at all?”

 

Harry shook his head. “I sat down and I think…well I must have fallen asleep. I’m sorry.”

 

“That’s alright, love. Do you feel better now?”

 

“I feel less pain, but I’m still sore. My legs won’t hold me up.”

 

“Is that why you made so much noise getting up?”

 

“I think so. I fell out of the bed, tripped over the rug, stubbed my toe, stumbled my way into the bathroom, only to slip on cellophane, I couldn’t stay standing in the shower either.”

 

“I think you’re in a bit more pain than you actually realise. Come on. You’re worse than a prune at the minute.”

 

“I kept biting at Myron too.” Harry moaned pathetically.

 

“You literally bit him at some point during the heat too. He has a wicked set of your teeth imprints in his right calf, I’m almost jealous. But as I said, you’re in more pain that you realise. You need a good dose of a strong pain reliever. We’ve got you one ready downstairs.”

 

Harry was dried and dressed in his softest, thickest pyjamas and Aneirin carried him down to the kitchen.

 

“He didn’t drown then?” Myron grumped.

 

“No, he was asleep in the bottom of the bath though.”

 

Myron growled. “I knew I should have stayed in there with him.”

 

“His head was at the opposite end to the shower.” Aneirin said calmly.

 

“Doesn’t matter, you know how much he wriggles in his sleep.”

 

Aneirin sat down and kept Harry on his lap as Myron handed him a plate of dry toast, about the limit of his culinary skills. Harry chewed and swallowed on automatic even as his eyes never left the little potion vial he knew would make everything all better. He wasn’t actually feeling any pain, but the tension in his body let him know that somewhere, on some level, his body recognised that he was in pain. He’d likely gotten used to the pain over the last eleven or so days, so it wasn’t as shocky or in his face, but it was there.

 

“Okay, you’ve eaten enough.” Myron declared as he unstoppered the vial and handed it to him. It went back in one with two huge gulping swallows that hurt his abused throat, but he didn’t care as just a minute later, his muscles slowly started relaxing little by little, one by one. It was pure bliss.

 

“Better?” Aneirin asked him.

 

Harry nodded slowly. “So, so much better. I think between the two of you something in my lower spine was damaged.”

 

“That was likely Myron; he is a big brute after all.”

 

Harry chuckled. “I’m sorry I bit you, was it deep?”

 

“It looks like you tried to tear a chunk out of my leg.” Myron snorted. “I’m going to call you my baby shark.”

 

Harry laughed tiredly, his throat still sore, but that was helped when he was handed a cup of tea sweetened with a good glob of honey. The tea helped with his thirst, the honey soothed his raw throat and it was just how he liked it.

 

“I think it was because you were both playing with one another.” Harry said after some thought. “You were kissing and rubbing against one another and I wasn’t getting anything, so when you didn’t respond quickly enough to my call, I bit the nearest thing to my mouth as I could.”

 

“I am so, so glad it was Myron’s leg you bit, can you imagine of one of us had turned around and our cocks were dangling near you?”

 

Myron made a yelping noise and shifted his chair back and Aneirin shivered. Harry chuckled until he imagined someone biting his cock with as much force as he’d apparently used on Myron, then winced and cupped his sore genitals with one hand, petting them lightly after they protested his lightly clenched hand.

 

“That’s a horrible image, thank you very much Aneirin.” Myron grumbled.

 

Harry chuckled and then yawned wide enough to crack his jaw.

 

“I think you need some more sleep, you’re up early. Probably from the pain.”

 

“We have too much to do.” Harry complained, even as his boneless body was picked up by the hulk that was Myron and carried back up to their bed.

 

“It can wait a few more hours while you get some more rest.” Myron told him.

 

Harry just nodded and wrapped his arms around that thick neck, nuzzling his nose into the bare skin. Myron made a very gorgeous picture when he was shirtless, all thick, bulging muscles that were tight and well defined, Harry had spent many hours in bed just feeling every indent they made as the fit twenty year old reclined back on the pillows and let him molest him with his fingers and occasionally his lips and tongue, when Harry was feeling confident and bold enough that was.

Myron lay on the bed with him, as Harry refused to let him go, and he roved a hand all over those delicious pecs and abs. The thighs and biceps were Myron’s winning factor though, arms that could hold him and pin him down and powerful thighs for good, solid thrusts. Harry giggled naughtily.

 

“What are you thinking, or don’t I want to know?”

 

“You probably don’t want to know.” Harry said with a smile as he continued drawing patterns on Myron’s, very impressive body.

 

Myron snorted and put his hands behind his head, letting Harry do as he pleased. It didn’t last very long, Harry was still too tired and he soon fell asleep with his head in Myron’s armpit, one leg cocked over his waist and his flat, muscled belly.

 

“Do you need a hand or do you want to stay there?” Aneirin asked as he came up to check on them.

 

“I’m fine where I am.” Myron said with a grin.

 

“I’m going to pick up the kids, will you be alright here?”

 

“Don’t forget who the top dominant in this mateship is.” Myron replied.

 

“Only because you’re so freakishly big.” Aneirin chuckled.

 

“And strong.” Myron added. “Once I’d pinned you down there was no way you were getting back up.”

 

Aneirin rolled his eyes. “So you hold down the home fort…and Harry. He might need more potion when he wakes up again, depending on how long he sleeps. I’m going to go get the munchkins.”

 

“Make sure your brother hasn’t hopped those rugrats up on sugar and Christmas spirit while you’re at it.” Myron called after him as loudly as he dared with Harry’s ear so close to his mouth. “You know he came home from his business trip two days ago, I dread to think on how much damage he’s done to them in that time.”

 

Aneirin waved a hand and then he was gone, leaving Myron to his thoughts as he cuddled a sleeping Harry close.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Christmas passed in a blur and Harry barely remembered the morning that was just a mass of ripped, shiny, colourful paper and the three kids jacked up on far too much excitement before they followed Myron’s tradition and went to his family for lunch, letting the kids interact with the other horde of kids there too, though Nasta stayed close to his Father until Sanex came and dragged him off for a mass game of tag.

Harry had found out in February, just after Nasta’s fifth birthday, that he was pregnant after a very early morning vomiting session in which his mates had rushed him to Saint Mungos, where it was confirmed that he was already two months pregnant.

That was the end of his freedom. Myron did not let him out of his sight, Aneirin was extremely overprotective and very aware of what Harry was eating, or not eating in some cases and he’d even snapped at Angharad when she’d almost bowled Harry off of his feet in a running hug. Harry had soon put a stop to that as he’d cuddled Anga tightly as he berated Aneirin for shouting at his eight year old princess.

Harry didn’t mind them much, they still went out to work, leaving him alone for most of the day with the kids, who were all home schooled, so Harry made sure to sit down with them to do their lessons for at least three hours a day and they happily told their Father what they’d learnt when he came home.

With Nasta now five years old, he was coming into his own a little more, but there was no way that Harry could stop his thirst for languages. Not that he wanted to; in fact he’d ordered a box set of tapes that he’d seen on late night TV when he’d been unable to sleep from the pregnancy and had been watching a film to pass the time.

He happily sat Nasta in front of the tapes that were teaching him German at the moment. He’d bought him Italian tapes too, but he wasn’t going to overwhelm Nasta, who was already picking up German and understanding it. Aneirin thought it was a brilliant idea too and Nasta loved spending as much time as he was allowed watching his tapes.

March passed and with it Sanex’s seventh birthday, he was getting cheeky, much like his Uncle Idris, but he was a sweet kid and he had grown fond of Myron, who wouldn’t admit it, but he’d grown very fond of all three kids and he treated them like they were his, he didn’t even see them as just Aneirin’s kids anymore, the three of them were their kids and anyone who dared hurt or upset them had better start running and never stop because the minute he caught up, they were dead.

Harry’s pregnancy was progressing well, he was four months pregnant and Sirius was teasing him mercilessly, well…him and his Dad, but his Mum was so happy as she took him baby shopping at every opportunity that she could.

He had everything he needed, all paid for by his parents, which he’d tried to protest, but they hadn’t allowed him as his Dad handed over the Muggle money for the nursery set that Harry had fallen in love with and as his Mum was holding arms of shopping bags that were filled with clothes that Harry had picked, but she had paid for.

 

“Nonsense Harry! It’s not every day we get to become first time grandparents.” His Mum shushed him as he protested yet again as his Dad bought the pram that Harry wanted.

 

“It’s not like we haven’t got the money, son.” His Dad told him with a grin as he wrapped an arm around his pregnant son and squeezed gently.

 

He hated seeing the physical effects of his son being in a sexual relationship. He hated knowing that his son was now off having sex with two other men, but he swallowed back his discomfort. Harry was almost nineteen; he was happier and more confident than he’d ever seen him. Myron and Aneirin were good for Harry, who wasn’t as shy as he used to be, plus the three gorgeous grandchildren he’d suddenly inherited made him feel like he was twenty again himself as he ran around the same garden he’d chased Harry around for hours when he was the same age. It was nostalgic really and he enjoyed it, though he couldn’t help wondering if Harry’s baby would be as stunning as Harry himself had been as a baby. All the ladies had cooed over his beautiful baby son, with his tiny chubby body, soft pale skin and his huge eyes that had gone from blue to green in the first three months of his life. Harry had been gorgeous and he wondered if his blood grandchildren would be as gorgeous when they were born.  

 

“You don’t have to buy everything for me anymore.” Harry insisted as he tried to buy nappies and wipes, only to have his hand slapped away as his Mother paid for them.

 

“We want to, Harry. Honestly, you’re our only baby, we only had you, so we get to focus solely on you.”

 

“It makes us happy to do this for you.” James added as he pulled his still tiny son into his arms. “We love you and we’re going to love and spoil this new baby, you’re just going to have to accept that.”

 

“But do you really need to buy nappies and stuff? That’s everyday items.”

 

“I don’t care. You can buy those things after the baby is born, until then; it’s my job to provide everything you need. Now do you want paint for the nursery?”

 

Harry shook his head. “Myron’s already done that. His Dad insisted on buying the different paints we wanted and sent four of his sons over to paint the room for it while Myron kept me downstairs and away from the fumes.”

 

“Good.” His Father said with a nod. “He’s a good boy.”

 

“I don’t think you can call Myron a boy, Dad. He’s twice the size of you.”

 

“He’s nineteen years younger than me.” His Dad harrumphed. “I get to call him a boy if I want to and he can’t say anything about it because he’s mated to my baby boy.”  

 

Harry shook his head with a smile as he was hurried to another shop to pick out some more clothes for his Mother to buy.

 

“Oh look at this adorable little romper suit! You have to have this Harry, sweetheart.”

 

“Those dungarees too.” His Dad added a pair of the denim dungarees to his Mother’s basket.

 

“I don’t even know if I’m having a boy!” Harry complained.

 

“You can put a little girl in dungarees.” His Mother told him. “I was always wearing dungarees when I was younger.”

 

“You looked like a little girl too when you were toddling, but we still put you in dungarees.”

 

“Do _not_ bring out the photos you and Sirius have of me in that dress.” Harry warned. “If anyone sees those photos I’ll die of shame.”

 

“They might like seeing you in a dress.” His Mother said.

 

Both Harry and James shivered, the former in horror of his mates seeing those horrific pictures, the latter because of the thought of his son’s lovers getting aroused over pictures of his son cross dressing.

 

“I’ll show them that one we took when Sirius body binded you when you were seventeen and got that gorgeous dress on you for your graduation party.” Lily sighed. “You looked lovely.”

 

“Please Mum, don’t.” Harry begged.

 

“Nonsense, they have to see them Harry, they have to see all of your baby photos, its tradition.”

 

Harry groaned and placed a hand to his hidden bump. He was wearing a very overlarge tee shirt today to hide his small bump as they were out in Muggle London, but he could feel his little baby moving gently inside him. He only had three months left to carry this baby; he was going to start nesting soon.

 

“Can we get something to eat please? I’m starting to get hungry.” He told his parents, who hurriedly finished their shopping and got him to a café.

 

“Are you alright?” His Dad asked, hovering over him as Harry ate a very big, very stuffed sandwich. “Do you need anything else?”

 

“Don’t fuss, James. If he wanted something else, he would have asked for it. Just sit down and eat your own lunch and leave Harry in peace. If you keep bothering him while he’s eating he’s going to choke.”

 

That got James to sit down and take a few bites of his own sandwich, but he kept an eye on his son, especially as the group of girls on another table kept looking at his son and giggling together. He hated it when girls did that, but Harry seemed completely unfazed by it as he finished his sandwich and ate the bowl of fruit salad.

 

One of the girls approached their table when Lily excused herself to the bathroom and Harry and James looked up.

 

“H…hi.” The girl said blushing to her roots. She was very pretty, James allowed, but he still narrowed his eyes on her. “I…I was wondering if…if you wanted to go and see a movie with me?”

 

“Oh…I’m sorry, I have a family and four children.” Harry said softly. “It was nice of you to ask though, it was very brave of you to gather up the courage to come over and ask. I’m flattered.”

 

James smiled into his glass. Lily and he had brought Harry up right, he was so polite and kind, even if he was lying through his teeth, he wouldn’t hurt this girl’s feelings even though he wasn’t even interested in women.

 

“Oh…I’m sorry to bother you.” The girl said embarrassedly.

 

“Its fine, I’m sure you’ll find a boyfriend very soon.”

 

That made the girl smile and she went back to her friends who swarmed her up in a huddle of hushed whispers. James rolled his eyes. He’d never understand teenaged girls.

 

“What was that about?” Lily asked as she came over to their table, settling her handbag more comfortably over her shoulder.

 

“Our little boy was being asked on a date.”

 

“Dad.” Harry complained. “She was nice though.”

 

“I hope you let her down gently.” Lily said sternly.

 

James huffed. “He let her down so gently I don’t even think she was upset or disappointed. Honestly Lily, we raised this boy right, he’s such a gentleman.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “Can we go home now? I think we’d done enough shopping.”

 

His parents nodded and Harry sighed in utter relief. He was missing his three babies waiting for him at home.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry started nesting in June. He’d built his nest on a crop of rock at the back of Myron’s property line. It wasn’t very high, but it was giving his mate’s sleepless nights as they worried constantly that his wriggling while he slept would mean he rolled right off the edge of the rock outcrop.

Harry, in his nest, had no such worries as he luxuriated, completely naked, under the June sun, his wings and scales out as he soaked in the warmth.

The days passed slowly, as the three kids left behind whined for their Harry to come back, they wanted to bake cakes, they wanted their lessons from Harry, they wanted to be tucked in by Harry…it was driving the two men left behind insane, as they knew Harry could be nesting for another month at least.

Thankfully it wasn’t that long as Harry only stayed in his nest for two weeks before he woke Myron and Aneirin up at four in the morning with his screams as he went into labour. He woke the three kids up as well, who were worried and frightened.

 

“It’s alright.” Aneirin soothed. “Harry is just in labour, he’s going to give you a new brother or sister.”

 

“But he’s screaming.” Sanex said with wide eyes.

 

“He will for a while.” Myron told them. “But he’ll be alright at the end.”

 

“Mummy wasn’t. Mummy died while giving us a new brother.” Angharad said softly.

 

“Your Mummy didn’t want to leave you, Angharad. She couldn’t help it, she couldn’t stop herself from leaving, but just because your Mummy died while giving us Nasta, doesn’t mean that Harry will be the same, do you understand?”

 

The three children nodded, just as Harry screamed again, louder than before.

 

“I’ll take these three and put cartoons on.” Myron said with a look. He silenced the room the moment he had the children inside and he got cartoons on the TV, he floo called his family, Aneirin’s family and Harry’s parents, letting them know that Harry had gone into labour. He was two weeks into his eighth month of pregnancy, he’d carried well for his first child, he was very proud.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was silent, so silent and he had been for two days now. Aneirin was worried, but Myron kept him calm and stopped him from going up to Harry’s nest to check on him.

Their patience paid off and while they were having breakfast on the morning of the third day since Harry had gone quiet, Harry walked through the back door with a wrapped bundle in his arms.

 

“Harry!” The three kids cried out together, but Aneirin kept them in their seats as Myron got Harry into a chair.

 

The kids all started talking together excitedly until they were shushed gently.

 

“Let Harry have something to eat and drink first.” Aneirin told them with a relieved smile, he was almost beaming with pride and relief.

 

“I’m alright.” Harry said quietly.

 

“The baby?” Angharad asked as she stood on her chair to try and peer into the blanket.

 

“She’s alright too.” Harry said with a smile.

 

“A sister? You gave me a sister?” Angharad said with a grin. “Yes! I’m not the only girl in the family anymore.”

 

“A baby girl? Is she alright?” Myron asked protectively.

 

“I just said that she was. She’s fine. She’s happy and healthy and she’s been eating well and she has all the reflexes she’s supposed to have. She needs some clean clothes though.”

 

“Is she a proper sister or one we’re going to adopt?” Sanex asked. “I asked Nanny about adopting the baby and she said that we could.”

 

Harry smiled. “You’ll have to get your adoption process ready then, she’s yours Myron.”

 

Myron looked like a deer in the headlights as he accepted the baby from Harry while Harry turned around and pulled Nasta gently onto his lap, being very careful of his recovering caesarean scar.

 

“I missed you little monkeys so much, how have you been? Have you been good?”

 

“We’re always good.” Nasta pouted up at him.

 

Harry smiled and pinched those chubby cheeks gently. “I know, have you gotten any further with your German? How about your school work?”

 

“I’m more than halfway through my tapes!” Nasta said excitedly. “I can start on the Italian ones then, can’t I?”

 

“You can.” Harry agreed.

 

Nasta bounced excitedly and Harry gritted his teeth and grimaced.

 

“Nassa, don’t do that, you’re hurting, Harry.” Angharad scolded.

 

Nasta stopped immediately and peered up at him. “I’m sorry.”

 

“It’s alright sweetheart, just take it easy for a while.”

 

Nasta nodded.

 

“Can I see the baby?” Sanex asked. “I have to see the baby I’m adopting.”

 

Harry shared a tired grin with his mates as Myron went to crouch down between Sanex and Angharad while Aneirin picked up Nasta so that he could see the tiny, beautiful face of his first child, of their first child together, a beautiful little girl who had a healthy, full face and cubby hands poking out of her blanket.

 

“What’s her name?” Anga asked as she used ‘gentle hands’ to pet the baby’s dark, damp hair.

 

“She doesn’t have one yet.” Myron rumbled softly.

 

“Why not?” Nasta asked. “What do we call her?”

 

“We haven’t given her a name yet, but it won’t be long until she has one.”

 

“We have to find her a strong, fitting name.” Harry said. “She has to be named after a warrior or a princess or a fierce queen.”

 

“You want to keep the Maddison tradition?” Myron asked a little choked up.

 

Harry nodded. “I was thinking of Ivy or Rosalia, but she’s a big baby, she’s not dainty like those names, she’s an eight pound, ten ounce baby. I’m thinking more along the lines of Cassie or Beatrice. Maybe Roxanne.”

 

“Oh, I like that name!” Angharad said. “Baby Roxanne.”

 

Harry shared a look with his mates as the two boys made noises of agreement.

 

“It seems she has a name early. Roxanne Kimberly Lillian Maddison-Potter. Do you all agree?”

 

His mates nodded happily, but Nasta was scowling.

 

“You don’t like her name Nasta?”

 

“I do!” He said. “I just.” He suddenly looked a little shy. “I don’t think I can say it.”

 

“You can, you’re very, very clever.” Harry insisted. “Roxanne.”

 

“Ox…oxanne.”

 

“Say rock.” Harry encouraged.

 

“Rock.

 

“Rocks.”

 

“Rocks.”

 

“Roxanne.”

 

“Wocksanne.”

 

“You could call her Roxie for short, if that’s easier.” Aneirin told him.

 

“Rocksie.”

 

Harry smiled. “Close enough Nasta, good boy.”

 

“When are you going to give us another brother?” Sanex asked.

 

The three of them laughed. “Let me recover from Roxanne first, Nex. Let us all get used to her first and then you can ask for another brother or sister.”

 

“Let me go and call your parents, they’ll want to meet her.” Aneirin said.

 

Harry smiled as he thought of how excited his Mum, Dad, Sirius and Remus were going to be when he introduced his daughter to them.

 

“Call all of the family.” He said. “We’ll make this a celebration of her birth.”

 

“I don’t think you need the excitement.” Myron cautioned.

 

“I’m okay for now, I’ve been doing nothing but sleeping for the last two or so days. I was only waking up to feed and change Roxanne.”

 

“I’ll get you some tea and something to eat.” Myron said.

 

“Can I hold Roxie?” Angharad asked. “I know she’s very delicate and needs to be held gently. I held Nassa after he was born too.”

 

“Okay.” Harry agreed. “But stay sitting down, she’s a very heavy baby. Much heavier than Nasta was.”

 

Myron reluctantly handed his daughter to Angharad and hovered over her as she held the baby with her body resting in Anga’s lap and her head and upper body being cuddled by both of Angharad’s arms.

 

“She’s looking at me!” She said excitedly.

 

Harry looked over the table to see Roxanne’s eyes slitted open, peering up at her big sister.

 

“You’re her big sister and her big brothers now, she wants to meet you.”

 

“Hello Rocky!” Nasta said as he crawled over the table top to peer back at her as Sanex stood by his sister to look at the new baby.

 

Aneirin came in and he was followed immediately by Harry’s parents and his Godfather.

 

“Did I just hear right? Is my Godson’s baby called Rocky?” Sirius asked.

 

Harry’s Mum came to check on him and his Dad hovered around him too, but Sirius went to look at the baby over Angharad’s shoulder.

 

“Dear Merlin, that is one gorgeous baby boy.”

 

“You had a boy, Harry?” Alexander, Myron’s Father asked as he came into the room.

 

Aneirin’s Father, Hywel, came in escorting his sick and frail Wife, Eirian. Harry tried to stand up to greet them, but he didn’t even get halfway out of the chair before his Father, Myron, Alexander and Sirius all started making noise and ushering him back into the chair.

 

“Nanny! Grampy!” Nasta called out, keeping up and holding his arms out.

 

“Hello Nasta, dearest.” Eirian greeted hushed. “I hear you’ve got a new sibling.”

 

“Sib…sib…sibin.” Nasta tried to repeat. “We have a new sister, Nanny. She’s called Rocky!”

 

“Wait, you had a girl? You can’t name a baby girl Rocky, Harry!” Sirius said aghast. “What pain potion are you on?”

 

Harry snorted. “Her name is Roxanne Kimberly Lillian Maddison-Potter. Nasta can’t say Roxanne, so he’s doing his best and calling her Roxie, Nasta, remember.”

 

“Rocksie.” Nasta nodded. 

 

“That’s a lovely name.” Eirian sighed. “Myron’s girl then?”

 

Harry nodded.

 

“Likely for the best. Our Nye has three already, Myron has some catching up to do.”

 

Harry smiled as he settled with a cup of tea, a pain potion and had his mates and his Dad offering all sorts of foods, trying to get him to eat something as they all fussed around him. He was happy and he had a family. A very large family, but one he loved nonetheless. He had two handpicked mates whom he loved dearly, he had three step children whom he loved fiercely and had all but adopted as his own and he had a new baby daughter to love, who he had grown, nourished and carried in his own body. His life seemed pretty damn perfect at the moment. He had his parents to support him, he had extended family who he loved and he had his own little family that he absolutely adored.

He might not have had the life he’d expected, he might not have the life his parents had wanted for him, but nothing in life was ever certain and it couldn’t be planned down to the letter, in his opinion he thought he’d done pretty damn well for himself.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy birthday Christy! I hope you liked this gift, you asked me for Myron/Harry/Aneirin and I gave you this, I hope you liked it!
> 
> It means a lot to me that all of you read and review this little side fic, thank you to all of you!
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	41. The Surprise Gift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is set to tie in perfectly with today, the 5th of August 2014, the day that Harry gives birth to his sextuplets.  
> There will be graphic descriptions of a self-caesarean, but as Harry is feral and out of his mind, it is a bit distanced.
> 
> July/August 2014
> 
> Nasta – 54 years  
> Max – 47 years  
> Blaise – 34 years  
> Draco – 34 years  
> Harry – 33/34 years
> 
> Braiden – 16 years  
> Quintuplets – 16 years  
> Eva and Ave – 15 years  
> Taren – 14 years  
> Lai – 13 years  
> Xabiere – 12 years  
> Mace and Evie – 11 years  
> Mollie – 11 years  
> Quadruplets – 10 years  
> Serra and Senna - 8 years  
> Lian – 6 years  
> Neave, Fee and Luce – 6 years  
> Loren – 4 years  
> Ric and Lanie – 3 years  
> Sully – 22/23 months  
> Lia, Nimi and Van – 13/14 months  
> Harry is 5 months pregnant with sextuplets.

The Surprise Gift

 

He had known it was coming, naturally. He had been on serious bed rest for the last two months as he just couldn’t move easily any more. His mates were incredibly overprotective of him this time around, to the point where he was sure that they’d cast charms on him to alert them to every single move he made because if he even dared stand up and walk to the bottom of the stairs, one or even two of them were just there, ready and willing to carry him up and then back down the stairs.

He’d had three sets of triplets, a set of them a little over a year ago to boot, and even a set of quadruplets, but this was his first set of quintuplets since his second pregnancy, when he’d almost lost his newborns as they’d been born too early and where he’d had to work to get his Calix and Leolin breathing, where he’d forced them to take that first breath to get them to live.

He’d taken excessive care with this pregnancy, since he’d lost Jaime and Cassie eleven years ago now; he’d taken excessive care with his higher multiple pregnancies, he’d been constantly told that he carried well and that he did everything right, but he’d let that go to his head and when he’d fallen pregnant with his first set of triplets, he’d done too much and because of that he’d pushed himself into early labour and they’d been born far too early and as a result, two of his newborns had died leaving him with only the one. His little fighter, Mollie, who despite the terrible start to life where she’d been in Saint Mungos for two months before she’d been able to come home, she was coming on so wonderfully well and she was about to start Hogwarts now in September, she’d been more excited to get her own set of Hogwarts uniform robes than she’d been to get her first real wand.

He was very heavily pregnant and he’d carried so well this time around, he was five months gone now as it approached August and he was so pleased and proud of himself that he’d given the five babies within him a fighting chance of surviving their birth, especially after the horrific birth his first and only other set of quintuplets had given him, the scare they had given them all really, especially poor Sanex.

He was very large, much larger than he’d been with the first set of quintuplets, which made sense really as he’d carried them for a month longer, but having this extra weight on himself was…burdening and not only couldn’t he move very well, he could do little more than pat his children on the head or have them snuggle into his side as there was no way he could pick them up or sit them on his bump, not that his mates would have allowed him to do that in the first place, but it upset him and his younger children that he couldn’t cuddle them properly, like they all wanted. It was frustrating and he was ready for this pregnancy to be over now, but he felt bad for thinking such things when he knew that every added day would be an added boost to the babies within, an added day could be the difference between them having a good start in life, or a bad one.

But he’d just managed to hold on to his older triplets’ sixth birthday on the seventeenth of July and then he’d slipped away and gone into his nest. He was going to miss his own birthday, he was almost certain of that, but he didn’t know if he was going to make his oldest son, Braiden’s, birthday on the fourteenth of August, all he knew was he was naked, about two miles from his home, in a very hard to access area of a cliff in the forest behind their back garden. It was halfway down the face of the cliff, he’d found the biggest outcrop he could and he’d made his nest on it, making sure that the ‘walls’ of his nest facing the sheer drop were higher and more solidly packed, just for a bit of extra security.

He heard his mates calling him desperately, he could sound out the panic in their calls, their desperation and he trilled back happily, peacefully. He was fine; he was safe, though he was a little annoyed at their needless interruption.

He scented them around him then and he hissed, he wanted them to go away. He was trying to keep himself and his unborn babies safe, hidden and protected, he couldn’t do that if his mates were hovering around his nest site!

They left him alone after he’d hissed at them a few times and he settled down, resettling his wings and tucking them into his body as he stroked over his huge bulge. He hoped that it wouldn’t be long now.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

“Where’s Mummy?”

 

“Want Mama!”

 

“Mummy _always_ tucks me in!”

 

“I want Mummy to baff me!”

 

“I want Muma cuddles!”

 

Nasta was at his wits end with his children as he heard the demands being shouted from upstairs that his children wanted their Mother. It’s all they’d gotten for the last several days since Harry had gone into his nest. His nest that he had built halfway up a sheer drop cliff he might add.

It was no wonder he was grey at the temples. He felt continuously worried and with Eva and Ave coming into their Dracken inheritances in just five months, he was beginning to think he was losing his marbles.

Max came in with a sniffling Sully and he offloaded the almost two year old boy onto Nasta and sunk down onto his knees and prostrated himself on the floor, hugging him around the shins.

 

“I can’t take this anymore, I can’t!”

 

Nasta chuckled and threaded his fingers through Max’s hair. He smirked when he felt the curls under his fingers. They’d all been so worried, so rushed off of their feet in the last month with Harry’s pregnancy with another set of quintuplets, him suddenly disappearing into his nest and then their children demanding that their Mother come back…Max hadn’t had a chance to cut his hair back, so it was just starting to curl at the ends, he looked gorgeous with it, but he wouldn’t have it and every morning he swore he was going to cut it later that day, only he never found the time to do it, there was always something that needed his attention or another job he needed to do and his haircut got pushed to the side and all the while, his curls grew in.

 

“It won’t be much longer, we can hold down the fort until then.” Nasta said soothingly as he rocked Sully in the crook of his arm, the sniffling twenty-two month old calming quickly as he was rocked gently.

 

“It’s eleven at night and half the kids are still awake because they want Harry. There’s nothing we can do and they aren’t listening to us.”

 

“They’ll just have to go without, now come on, up you get. Go and make us all some tea. I’ll have these kids all in bed in ten minutes.”

 

“What about your paperwork?” Max asked with a guilty look at the growing pile of work Nasta had to do.

 

“Family comes first.” Was Nasta’s simple reply as he stood up and carried a now sleeping Sully up the stairs to the nursery.

 

He put the boy into his cot and went back onto the landing and shut the nursery door. He went up another level to complete chaos. Kids were running around and still playing, the younger ones were refusing to go to bed or were crying for Harry and every time Draco or Blaise caught a child and put them to bed, they reappeared on the landing a few minutes later, giggling and pulling faces at their Fathers.

 

“That is more than enough!” He shouted to make himself heard and everything just stopped. “Just what do you think you are playing at? It is eleven O’clock in the night and you’re charging around like wounded rhinos, ignoring your Fathers and even defying them! It ends now, I won’t have such disrespect shown to us, we are your parents and you will respect us as such. You will all get into bed this instant or you won’t like the consequences that come to you. Go to bed, now!”

 

The kids scrambled in every which way on Nasta’s command like a flock of frightened birds, leaving Blaise and Draco to fall against walls in relief that their never ending ordeal was finally over.

 

“Make sure those kids are actually in their beds and then come downstairs, Max made tea.” Nasta said gruffly before he went down a floor and checked on the nurseries.

 

In the first, their thirteen month old triplets were all sound asleep and Sully had thankfully joined them, in a second nursery next door to the first, their three year old Faerie twins were fast asleep too, undisturbed by the noise and commotion going on around them.

He sighed; he hated shouting at his children. He hated it, but when they got like this, so wound up and overtired, there was nothing else for it. He went down into the kitchen and hugged Max tightly.

 

“I know you hate it.” Max said with a sigh as he hugged him back tighter, putting four wet kisses on his forehead for good measure. “But you’re the only one with enough authority to get them to do exactly as you say, must be a top dominant thing.”

 

Nasta grunted as he separated from Max. “You just want to always make me out to be the bad guy.”

 

Max looked surprised. “You actually think that? I don’t I swear, it’s just they don’t listen to me, or at least not all of them. Some ran for their rooms when I told them to, in my most serious voice I might add, but when the others didn’t listen, they crept back out again. Only you could have gotten every single one of those kids in bed.”

 

“Is Braiden home yet?” Draco asked as he came into the kitchen, tired and weary.

 

“Not yet, he still has ten minutes on his curfew.” Nasta said as he looked at the clock. “He’s almost seventeen now, he needs his space and independence.”

 

“He’d better be here at half eleven though.” Blaise said darkly. “I don’t like him being out so late.”

 

“He’s gone to a music concert, they usually end at eleven.” Max insisted, trying to play the peacemaker. “Give him some time to buy some mementos, say goodbye to any friends he’s made and then get himself home. He’s a good kid, he’ll be here at half eleven or there abouts. A few minutes over is acceptable, we all agreed on that.”

 

They went into the living room with the tea that Max had made for them and Nasta dragged his paperwork back towards himself. He had more of it than he knew what to do with and he knew some of it was overdue, but with Harry heavily pregnant and now nesting, there wasn’t a lot that he could do. He’d meant it when he’d said that his family came first, they would always come first, but it also meant he was not only stressed at home at the moment, but he was stressed over his work too and he was sleeping less and less lately.

At twenty-five minutes to midnight, five minutes over Braiden’s curfew, a key was pushed into the lock of the front door and turned quietly. The door shut just as quietly and they heard a body flump onto the floor to remove a pair of shoes, soft footfalls on the wooden flooring of the hallway came their way before their handsome son came into the living room grinning happily, a backpack slung over his shoulder. He looked at their faces and then at the clock on the mantel piece. His face fell.

 

“I’m sorry, I must have lost track of time when I went buying stuff after the gig. I didn’t mean to be late, I’m sorry.”

 

“Calm down, we won’t begrudge you five extra minutes, you’re lucky your Mum is nesting though, he’d have started pulling out his hair a second over half past in his condition.”

 

Braiden’s frown turned back into an infectious grin and the minute Max asked him how the concert had been, that was it. Braiden took them through a blow by blow account of every song, and from which album, the band had played, everything he’d done from the minute he’d left the house several hours ago, the people he’d met and he turned out his backpack and showed them the two tee shirts, the one hoodie, the new wallet and the hat that he’d bought, all with the bands logos and the tour date on them.

 

“Alright, I think we’re confused enough love, go and get yourself into bed.”

 

“Will Mum be okay?” He asked just before he left the room, his backpack slung back over his shoulder.

 

“He’ll be just fine. He’s had quintuplets before.”

 

“He was a lot younger then.” Braiden said worriedly.

 

“He was, he was a little older than you when he had them. It would be like you giving birth to one baby next month, falling pregnant and then giving birth again to five babies in January.” Draco said with a smile.

 

“Your Mother will be fine.” Nasta insisted as Braiden winced. “He knows what he has to do and he’s much more experienced now than he was back then. He knows what he has to do now and he’ll keep calm and just do it. I can’t guarantee he’ll be out in time for your birthday, but know that we’ll make it just as good as if he were here still.”

 

“A birthday without Mum just isn’t the same…how can it be when he’s not there? But I know you all try hard and I appreciate that and I won’t kick up a fuss if Mum isn’t there, but I’ll still want him to be there.”

 

“We know love, but he can’t help that he isn’t here.”

 

Braiden nodded and smiled. “I know that too. Goodnight.”

 

“Night.” They chorused back and Nasta sighed, dragging his paperwork back to himself and picking up his quill again.

 

“Do you want more tea?” Max asked.

 

“Please. This is going to take me another two hours at least.”

 

“You need some decent sleep.” Blaise said concernedly.

 

“I’m fine, this is already overdue and if I don’t keep on top of it then several more papers are going to be overdue by next week.”

 

“Stay in your office tomorrow.” Draco told him. “Sort out as much of it as you can and between the three of us, we’ll keep everything sorted.”

 

Nasta snorted. “I saw that tonight.”

 

“That’s not fair, they were riled up and they wanted Harry.” Blaise said.

 

Nasta sighed. “I know, I’m sorry. I’m just worried.”

 

“And stressed.” Max called from the kitchen.

 

Nasta rolled his eyes and went back to his paperwork; this was the worst part of being _the_ senior Dragonologist on the reserve. Everyone came to him for everything and wanted his opinion before they did anything. He’d become the go-to guy at the reserve and the Handlers didn’t so much as sneeze around the dragons without asking him if it was alright first.

Two hours later and Nasta was the only one left down stairs, an hour and a half after he usually stayed up and at least an hour after he’d wanted to go up to bed, but that was when he heard someone padding softly down the stairs. He frowned and listened hard as someone went into the shoe cupboard they kept by the front door and when he heard the latch being taken off the front door, he moved quickly.

He came out of the living room, went down the hallway and turned right to the hallway that led to the front door, to find it open and a body halfway out.

 

“What in god’s name do you think you’re doing?” He demanded as the sight of his sixteen year old son met him. “It is three O’clock in the morning, where in the hell are you going?”

 

Farren almost jumped out of his skin when Nasta spoke to him and he looked so guilty and shamefaced that Nasta knew that he was up to no good.

 

“I was…I was just going for a run, it’s so hot upstairs that I can’t sleep, I thought a run might help.”

 

“We have a heat controlled gym.” Nasta said neutrally, folding his arms across his chest.

 

“It’s not the same as going out into the air.”

 

“You know that you’re not allowed out without permission. It’s three in the morning, Farren; get back in this house right now.”

 

“But my run…”

 

“You have three options, you go and use the gym, I can go upstairs and cast a cooling charm on your sheets, or I go with you on a quick run around the block.”

 

Farren coloured up and Nasta almost smirked, but he controlled it. If Farren was really going for a run he’d sit down right where he was and eat his own feet, socks and all.

 

“You…you don’t have to, Dad.”

 

“You’re sixteen; I’m not going to let you out of this house in the middle of the night without me.”

 

“You let Braiden go out!”

 

“Braiden is seventeen in three weeks, we knew exactly where he was and why and he was home at half eleven. I’ll repeat yet again, it is three in the morning, Farren. It’s not the same situation.”

 

“It’s just a run; I go with Mace almost every morning!”

 

“Exactly, you both go together and you go in the morning, not the dead middle of the night and you go with our permission as one of us is always up before you go on your morning runs to know where you are if anything happens or goes wrong.”

 

Nasta took a good look at his son and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he’d had planned. He was wearing his best jeans, a good pair of trainers and a smart shirt. He had been going to meet someone, Nasta would bet every last Knut to his name on it.

 

“I just couldn’t sleep, Dad!”

 

He snorted. “You want to tell me what you’re doing really?” He said seriously. “Do you think I was born yesterday? Come here and shut the door.”

 

Farren reluctantly did as he’d asked and Nasta turned and went back into the living room, knowing that Farren would follow him. He sat down on a settee and Farren did the same.

 

“Now, where were you going?”

 

“For a run, I told…”

 

“Do you want to cut the blatant lies Farren and tell me where you were going, or rather who you were meeting? You don’t go running in a shirt and your best jeans.”

 

Farren blushed, but he bit his lip. “I’m almost seventeen.”

 

“And you think I’m being unfair on you by stopping my sixteen year old son from going out to meet who knows who at three in the morning? Without telling anyone that he was going out in the first place, I might add.”

 

Farren swallowed and looked down. “Her Dad wouldn’t like us together; we can only meet when she can sneak out at night because her Dad has her older brothers follow her during the day to make sure she isn’t coming to see me.”

 

“What did you do to make this man not want you near his daughter?” Nasta asked.

 

“Nothing! He just doesn’t like me.”

 

Nasta smiled. “As a Father myself I understand that. Do you think I’d want Eva or Ave sneaking out at three in the morning to meet some boy? How would you feel as their brother if you found out that one of them was sneaking out in the middle of the night without permission or anyone knowing where they were to meet some boy that none of us knew?”

 

Nasta saw Farren’s jaw clench and his fist flexed.

 

“I wouldn’t like it at all, but they’re my sisters, I wouldn’t like it if they were twenty and doing it, but I’d never hurt Sasha, Dad. Never!”

 

“You’ll eventually end up hurting her, Farren.”

 

His son opened his mouth to retort angrily, but Nasta held up a hand.

 

“You’re a dominant Dracken, you have to attend every meeting that’s called, how will Sasha feel about that? Always coming second best to strangers that you have never even met before, going to a meeting to try and win the submissive as a mate, so that you can have children with them? Do you think any woman would accept that? Do you think they _should_ have to accept that, Farren?”

 

Farren looked upset. “But I really like her, she’s funny and smart and so pretty. I like being with her and I want to spend time with her! It’s not fair.”

 

“But does she deserve to live a life where you run off every time a meeting is called to survey another woman who you could mate with? You’ve already had one meeting, you know how hard the pull to go to the meeting is, it cannot be resisted. Would she agree to come second best while you mate to another woman and have children with her while treating Sasha as your mistress?”

 

Farren shook his head, looking angry at the very thought and upset that this was being laid out in such blatant terms. “No. She deserves so much better than that.”

 

“I know it isn’t fair Farren, but it’s not fair on Sasha either. Now, where were you meeting this girl? She needs to be taken home safely.”

 

Farren was panicked and he stood up quickly. “It’s okay, I’ll call her!”

 

“No, you’ll tell me where she is and I’ll go and get her and see her home safely myself. Don’t argue with me over this, I will not have her family blaming me or you for anything that happens to her on the walk home.” He said with his no nonsense tone.

 

“At the park around the corner.” Farren said very upset now.

 

“Come on then, let’s go and get her and see her safe.”

 

Farren led the way and Nasta followed his tall, bulky son, walking in silence to the park that they’d been taking the kids to ever since they were old enough to know what a play park was, but it seemed that the closer to the park they got, the more Farren slowed down. Nasta wondered what it was about this girl that Farren didn’t want him to know.

They walked over the field of grass and arrived at the play area and a small figure was sat on the swings, what surprised Nasta the most though was that Sasha was not a she at all, but a he. He gave a solid look to Farren and placed a hand gently on the small shoulder, softly calling out the boy’s name, if Sasha was his actual name and Farren hadn’t been lying about that too. The person jumped and looked at him with panic, before noticing Farren behind him.

 

“Farren.” He said in palpable relief.

 

“This is my Dad, Sash, he caught me trying to sneak out. He stayed up later than usual.” Farren said softly.

 

“I’m going to take you back home safely, Sasha.” Nasta said. “You two should never have agreed to meet up at such a late time, anything could have happened to you both and I wouldn’t have known and your parents wouldn’t have known either. It was a very dangerous thing to do.”

 

Nasta understood a little more now what was going on. Sasha’s Father obviously did not like the fact that his son was with his son and Farren was more into boys than he was girls, obviously, so he was worried that he’d have to go through his entire life without a mate because he only wanted a man and male submissives were very rare. Harry had been the last one and before him, it had been Regulus Black, before him…who knew, but on record it was a hundred or so years.

His heart clenched for his son, because if he’d been born human, this wouldn’t have been a problem at all and Farren would have been free to do as he pleased with whomever he pleased, but as a Dracken, things were a lot more complicated.

 

“My Dad is going to be so angry.” Sasha sighed.

 

“He won’t hurt you?” Nasta asked, having had enough experience with Harry’s past to know that not everyone was loving or caring to their children. The very thought of child abuse now made his heart pump faster and his anger start to rise and he was more aware of it because of Harry than he otherwise might have been.

 

Sasha looked surprised that he’d asked such a thing. “No! No, my Dad isn’t like that, he just…he doesn’t like me being with Farren. He even gets my brothers to try and stop us from getting together, but Farren is so big and strong that my brothers are scared of him, but to make things easier, we started meeting up at night, it was just easier and more peaceful this way.”

 

“How long have you two been meeting up here?”

 

“A month or two now. Since Farren got home from school.” Sasha said.

 

“From now on, you come to our house if you want to spend time together. You do not ever go sneaking out in the middle of the night.” Nasta said seriously.

 

“You…you’d let us spend time at your place?” Sasha asked excitedly.

 

Nasta nodded.

 

“You don’t mind that Farren and I…that we like each other more than friends?” Sasha asked determinedly.

 

Nasta snorted. “I’m not sure what Farren has told you, but I have four other men as my lovers. You being with my son is not any sort of problem to us.”

 

“Dad! Don’t say that word between you and Mum and my other Dads! It’s gross.”

 

“You have a Mum and more than one Dad?” Sasha asked with wide eyes.

 

“I have a Mum, who’s a man by the way, and four Dads.” Farren said grumpily.

 

“What I can’t fathom is why Farren never told you this or why he never brought you home before.”

 

Farren actually blushed. “It’s Calix mostly. Well, Calix, Taren and Mace. They tease the hell out of me and I just…I didn’t want to tell them I was gay, so I never. It wasn’t a problem until I met Sasha and I wanted to tell everyone, but they’re all still teasing me from last term in school and that was nothing, if I brought an actual boyfriend home, how would they treat me then? I just don’t want them to treat me like I’m different just because I happen to like boys over girls.”

 

Nasta sighed. “You should have come to us, we’re your parents for a reason Farren, what did you think we’d do if you told us, disown you?”

 

Farren laughed at the absurdity of that. He hadn’t known what he’d thought, but he hadn’t wanted any of his siblings to know, so he’d reasoned that if he’d told his parents, his siblings would know within days, so he hadn’t said anything. He should have just told someone, even if it was just his Mum, who kept secrets locked up tighter than a safe. He just didn’t want his family to see him any differently, especially Mace, who had always looked up to him.

 

“Come on Sasha, let’s get you home.”

 

Sasha was visibly sad to be going home, but he was happy enough to hold Farren’s hand all the way there. Nasta couldn’t help but smile. Sasha was tall, but slim with soft brown eyes and pale blond hair. He was more pretty than handsome and Nasta could see why he’d drawn Farren’s attention.

Sasha took out a key and unlocked a door not a twenty minute walk from their house and Farren was shy, but determined when he pecked Sasha’s lips goodnight, right in front of him.

 

“Night Farren.” Sasha said softly, his own blush on his cheeks. Nasta ducked his head to hide his smile, it was just so sickly sweet and overly cutesy that he wanted to laugh, but he held back the urge, not wanting to embarrass the boys or discourage them from public displays of affection. 

 

“Night Sash, I’ll call you tomorrow.” Farren promised.

 

“Maybe tomorrow I can finally come over and see all these brothers and sisters you keep talking about. I don’t believe that you have thirty of them.”

 

“Almost thirty-five, my Mum’s pregnant with another set of quintuplets.” Farren said quietly.

 

“Come over at midday, Sasha, the little ones should be napping by then; we’ll sort you out for lunch.” Nasta said with a smirk as he took Farren’s shoulder, waited until Sasha had closed the door and then he walked back home with his very quiet son.

 

“Am I in much trouble?”

 

“Sneaking out in the middle of the night for a month or more, meeting your secret boyfriend in the park when you had never let on once that you were interested in boys and had instead assured us that you liked girls…hiding this from us and bottling yourself up…you are in a heap of trouble, Farren, but for tonight, just get some sleep and don’t worry about it, I’ll call you tomorrow morning. You are restricted from the teen lounge until further notice and you can help me clean up after breakfast; you’re on dish washing duty, by yourself.”

 

Farren groaned theatrically. “That’s going to take me forever!”

 

Nasta smiled. “That’s why it’s called a punishment, love.” He said as he opened the front door and pushed his son into the house. “Now go upstairs and get to sleep.”

 

Farren nodded and hugged him goodnight and Nasta sighed. It was too late to do anything now, it was time to put away his paperwork and get to bed himself, it was almost five in the morning now after the nightly jaunt to the park. He put his stuff away safely and trudged up to the bedroom and stripped himself off.

 

“Where were you?” Max asked as he turned over when Nasta slid into the bed behind him. “I looked for you, but I never saw you, did you go out to see Harry? Is he okay?”

 

“You talk far too much when you were completely fast asleep only a minute ago. I’ll tell you in the morning, just get to sleep. I’m knackered.”

 

Max nodded and snuggled down in the bed which had no covers and its occupants were only wearing cotton shorts, but it was still hot.

Nasta recast the cooling charm and Blaise relaxed insurmountably in the bed, Nasta guessed he’d been about ten minutes from waking up from being far too hot.

He lay down and cuddled into his lovers, pushing everything out of his mind and just going to sleep, finally. It had been a long day; it would be an incredibly short night for him and tomorrow was going to be an even longer day. He hoped that Harry gave birth soon and came back to them, he really, really needed Harry to know what had happened with Farren tonight.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Unfortunately the days passed slowly and just as he’d said would happen, Farren’s brothers turned on him and started teasingly him mercilessly when Sasha turned up every day and kept kissing Farren and holding his hand. Though Nasta was very happy to see that Farren was not buckling to his brothers and happily held hands with and kissed Sasha back and he wasn’t unfairly pushing the poor boy away in front of his family members. In fact he seemed to keep Sasha closer to him around his brothers and kissed and hugged him more often, as if he was making a point to them.

Though he put a stop to the teasing harshly, making sure Max, Draco and Blaise did too, and he made sure to remind his children that such behaviour was completely unacceptable and he did his all to make Farren and Sasha comfortable, the comments and ribbing had continued. He’d even allowed Farren and Sasha up to Farren’s room to get away from the other kids, though under no circumstances was the door to be closed at any time. He’d even put a subtle ward on the door to alert him the minute it was closed tight, but so far the two boys had kept to their promise of not shutting the door completely while they were up there together.

Harry’s birthday passed with just a token party that was more for the kids as Harry wasn’t there himself to be fussed over, his presents were left in a corner of the room, in full view of his children, who were worried that one of them would either hide the presents or open them without their Mother, the thought of that made him chuckle.

As August came hotter and more humid, Nasta became even more worried about his children as he tried to police their time in the direct sunlight while making sure that they had sun cream covering them, that they all kept their fluid intake up, that the younger children kept their sunhats on their heads all the while trying to keep an eye on Harry in his nest, on Farren and Sasha, making sure the children under the age of five stayed in their shaded play area and didn’t crawl or toddle out into the sun all the while doing his overflowing paperwork as well.

He was going to surpass grey and just go straight to bald, he knew it.

 

“I thought you looked like you needed a drink.” Blaise said as he brought Nasta a pint glass filled with Max’s homemade still, cloudy lemonade with lots of ice and even a fresh lemon wedge.

 

He couldn’t help but smile as he pulled Blaise onto his lap and cwtched him, kissing his neck while rubbing him with his bristly chin.

 

“Thank you, Blaise.”

 

Blaise turned in on his lap and they kissed and cuddled like teenagers again. It was a little nostalgic, but that’s what Nasta loved about his family. He was fifty-four now, Blaise was thirty-four, but sometimes, when they had a moment to themselves, they acted like they were half their age still and he loved it, it made him feel younger and less stressed.

 

“Do you have to do that where we can see it?”

 

They looked over to see a horrified Farren holding hands with a giggling Sasha. They’d just come out of the house onto the back porch and they’d gotten an eyeful of them snogging with their bodies entwined on the same chair.

 

“I’m showing my love to my lifetime partner.” Nasta said. “One of my lifetime partners that is, you should be happy that you have a Mum and four Dads who love one another so much and aren’t afraid to show it.”

 

“Doesn’t mean I want to see it.” Farren huffed as he dragged Sasha further into the garden and away from them.

 

Blaise and Nasta shared a look and then they burst out laughing. Farren heard them and shot them a nasty look over his shoulder as he quickened his step away from them.

 

“That boy is certainly coming into his own. Wait until Harry finds out that Farren is gay and brought his boyfriend home for the first time while he was nesting.”

 

Nasta hummed and squeezed Blaise tight, laying his lips all over his neck.

 

“He’s going to be upset that he missed it, but I think he’ll like Sasha.”

 

“I like Sasha. Even _Draco_ likes Sasha.”

 

“He’s a good kid is why and he treats our Farren good. I caught Sasha _feeding_ Farren the other day. They were in the second living room and Farren was lying on the settee and Sasha had Farren’s head in his lap, feeding him.”

 

“It wasn’t grapes was it, that’ll be so clichéd!”

 

Nasta snorted, but he couldn’t stop the bubble of laughter that came out as he thought back to that afternoon. “No, it was cocktail sausages.”

 

“Seriously?” Blaise asked, pulling back to look at his face to make sure he was serious.

 

“Deadly serious. He was feeding Farren cocktail sausages from a plate that was beside him.”

 

“Oh, I have to tell Max that.” Blaise said with a laugh as he stood up, gave him a last kiss and then ran down to the far end of the garden, where Max was playing seven on seven rugby with Xabiere, Calix, Regan, Taren, Mace, Ave and Evie on one team and Max, Eva, Serra, Senna, Ethan, Jason and Ceri on the other.   

 

He checked on Leolin and made sure that he was alright, he was lounging on a sun chair in just a pair of shorts, he was lying on his belly so his wings were fully displayed and glinting in the sun as they twitched every now and then, he still did not have any sort of control over them. He checked on the younger Faerie twins and made sure that Sully and Loren were both behaving. Everything seemed fine with his large family.

 

“Please hurry up, Harry.” He sighed, before going back to his mountain of paperwork after draining half of his glass of still lemonade in one go.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

The sun was just setting behind the edge of the horizon when he felt the first twinge of pain. He was used to this by now and he kept himself calm and quiet, breathing through the small twinges of pain, but as full dark came over the night sky, he started to set everything in his nest up how he needed it, keeping himself busy and taking his mind away from the growing pain as he made sure that he knew exactly where everything he needed was in relation to where he was kneeling.

As the sun was just peeking over the edge of the horizon again, that was when the increasing pain became unbearable and he had to start screaming through every wave in order to deal with it. He immediately felt the soothing rumbles of his mates and it comforted him, knowing that they were there, close by.

He screamed through another stab of pain, then another and then another, each time his mates called back, soothing him and comforting him through his labour pains.

He screamed the longest and loudest with the next pain and as that pain slipped all the way up his spine and from the back to the front of his bump; he knew then that it was time.

He got himself up onto his knees and spread them, letting his bump fall between his thighs and he used a single claw to carefully, gently slice through his own flesh, fat and tissues. He screamed through this as well, one continuous, unbroken scream until he was completely breathless.

He checked the incision he’d made in himself and he made sure that it was long enough and deep enough with the back of his curled finger. He could feel the thin, membrane sac inside his body and the babies pushing against it behind that paper thin barrier.

He took a breath and knew that he needed to do this quickly and carefully to avoid infection, blood loss, excessive scarring and injuring or exposing his children.

He used one hand to press against his bump to keep the babies pressed back and the very tip of his claw on the other hand to open up his sac to the exact length that he needed it. He removed his hand from his belly and one baby immediately fell out of him and onto the floor of his bloodied nest.

Surprised and caught off guard, he checked the baby over carefully, but it seemed completely fine, he couldn’t scent out any injuries or damage done to the baby, so he clamped their cord and moved on quickly, taking out another baby and clamping their cord, then another, another and another until he had his five babies lined up in front of him. He felt for the placentas, knowing that there would be a few inside his sac, but he did not expect to find another baby.

Confused and not knowing what was happening, he communicated that to his mates, who rumbled back, giving him comfort and confidence, they trusted him to bring their children into the world; they trusted him to do this right. He wouldn’t let them down.

He carefully felt around inside himself to make sure there wasn’t another baby before he ripped out five placentas. One was missing. He felt for it, but it wasn’t there. He checked his newborns cords, following each one from the placenta down to the baby it was attached to. Two cords were attached to the same placenta; he had identical twins, so there would only be five placentas between his six newborns.

Assured now that nothing was amiss, he drained the bottles of cold blood, gulping and swallowing quickly to close his self-inflicted wound before he threw the empty bottles over the side of the nest and he checked on his children, cutting them off from the cords that had given them life for the last several months, throwing the placentas over the side of his nest too as he watched and listened to them one by one as their chests expanded with their first breaths of air and they started wailing for the first time.

All six of them were alive, were healthy and crying, they were all red skinned, covered in blood and vernix, but all six of them had five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.

He cleaned them off and wrapped them up, throwing the bloodied and soiled parts of his nest over the side to get rid of anything that might attract predators to his nest site and thus endangering his newborns before he lay down with his wrapped, bundled up babies and he rested. He was going to need a lot of rest to overcome the shock of birthing six babies.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

    

They were woken up with Harry’s first scream at dawn on the fifth of August. Their children were all awake too and they got them all down into the living room and allowed them to have their breakfasts in front of the TV as they listened to their Mother scream in agony at five in the morning.

Nasta warded the room they were in and he stayed in the kitchen with his subordinate dominants, listening to his mate scream through the labour pains every other minute. The day had finally come and Harry was finally going to give birth to their second set of quintuplets. He couldn’t say he wouldn’t be glad to see the back of this pregnancy and the mountain load of worry and stress it had brought with it.

They knew when Harry had started cutting into himself as he screamed louder and longer, the agony of the action brought through to them in his call and they automatically rumbled back their support to him.

Braiden was ash pale when he brought out a stack of used dishes into the kitchen and he looked like he would faint as Harry let out another tortured scream of utter agonising pain.

 

“Is…is he going to be okay?”

 

“He’s going to be fine, Braiden. Now please go back into the living room and watch over the younger kids for us.” Nasta said.

 

“They…they want juice.”

 

Max went to the huge double doored fridge and pulled out two cardboard cases of twenty juice cartons and handed them both to Braiden. He kissed his son’s forehead and ushered him back into the living room, which was blessedly silenced and he rejoined his mates, stood at the counter, looking through the window that faced where their mate was nesting and they watched and waited as they listened to him screaming, feeling utterly useless as they were unable to help their mate through his ordeal, all they could do was grumble and growl to him soothingly through their bond as he brought their five new babies into the world.

It took two hours for Harry to stop screaming and settle down. They knew when it was over when he stopped replying to their calls. They hoped he was merely sleeping, he was almost forty now and to have quintuplets again was going to take a lot out of his body. They were going to have to make sure that he rested fully and ensure that he didn’t so much as lift a finger for anything for the next handful of months. He was going to need his rest.

The day carried on as normal. They’d called the family and let them know that Harry had given birth early that morning, they kept the children happy and stopped them from thinking about their Mother as much as they could, Sasha came over again at eleven in the morning and Farren immediately sequestered him away to his bedroom and away from the younger kids, who were whining and asking when Mummy was going to get out of his nest and come home with the new babies. They’d told the boy that Harry was at the hospital, thankfully he was magical and not a complete Muggle, so they’d been able to explain that Harry was pregnant, but they couldn’t have him hearing anything about Harry being in a nest or ‘having the babies out in the back garden’ as a four year old Loren had put it.

They were on eggshells and when the fourth day came and went and Harry still hadn’t shown up, they were getting very worried, the only relief they had was that Harry answered their calls at least once a day, but he sounded completely exhausted. He needed them to help him, but they couldn’t do anything until he either called for them to help him out of the nest, or he came home.

Therefore it came as a complete surprise when the night of the fifth day since Harry had given birth, when all of their kids were in bed and their older teens were just getting ready to go up, when Harry walked in through the backdoor, they were all alerted to it by Max’s loud greeting.

 

“Why the hell didn’t you call us to help you?!”

 

“I don’t…too tired.” Harry answered brokenly as he all but fell into a chair, a blanket that was wrapped around his body securely held their five new babies close to their Mother’s bare chest.

 

“Merlin, it’s good to see you.” Draco sighed as he rushed into the kitchen and kissed Harry’s forehead, cupping his face in his large hands.

 

“How are you Mum? Can I get you anything? Do you want your robe?” Braiden asked quickly.

 

“Go and get his robe for him.” Nasta said authoritatively as he sat next to Harry and stroked his sweaty head. He immediately laid his lips where his hand had been and he subtly licked his submissive mate. “You feel feverish, Harry.”

 

That got Max moving and he checked Harry himself, before getting his potion’s case down and putting a mild fever reducer into Harry’s tea along with a few drops of calming draught.

 

“You have a mild fever, I expect it would have been worse a day or two ago, but it’s just a fever, nothing to be worried about. We all knew that this would take it out of you.”

 

“So Mum is fine?” Tegan asked worriedly, her face crumpled with upset.

 

“He’s fine, darling, just a little fevered and in need of a lot of rest.”

 

“I’m ‘kay.” Harry said. “Had a s’pise.”

 

“A surprise?” Calix decoded. “What is it?” He asked as Braiden rushed back into the room with Harry’s dressing gown.

 

Nasta took it and wrapped it around Harry’s naked body, being careful of the babies when Harry snarled at him and gave him a half-hearted swat. As he had his claws out still it was a little more of a threat than if it had been just his hand, but Nasta moved back respectfully all the same, Harry was just coming back from being feral, which was strange as it usually only took him a day or two after he’d given birth to come back into himself, not four, so he was still very protective of the newborns in his arms, they wouldn’t even be able to look at them until Harry had eased down a bit and relaxed back into the familiar setting and scents of their home.

Harry sipped at his tea and they listened anxiously to soft, baby sounds coming from within the blanket sling and they saw little wriggling movements from the newborns every now and then.

 

“Are they all alright?”

 

“Bastards.” Harry said grumpily, happily in front of their children too, which was very unusual…he still wasn’t himself. No one laughed and no one chastised him. “They’re all bastards.”

 

“Another set of quintuplets was always going to be hard.” Max agreed softly. “You should have called for us sooner, love. We could have come and got you home sooner to help you.”

 

“Just came back into myself.” Harry told them, his sentences improving the longer he sat there, drinking his tea until he pulled back his fangs and claws in one swift move and then finally his wings. His scales stayed put.

 

“Are you hungry?”

 

Harry shook his head. “I don’t feel well.”

 

“We’ll let you finish your tea and then get you up to bed, how are the babies? Were there any problems?”

 

“Too many…” Harry said.

 

They all gasped.

 

“Harry, please, tell us what was wrong, do we need to get a Healer?”

 

Harry shook his head and he looked frustrated at his inability to communicate with them.

 

“There were too many babies. Six of them.”

 

They looked at one another. “Are you sure?” Blaise asked.

 

Harry shot him a scathing look.

 

“Of course Mum’s sure! He just gave birth to them and has been looking after them for the last five days.” Leolin said with a sneer. “I’m sure he can count even when he’s feral.”

 

“I can count, thank you.” Harry said. “There are six of them. Four boys, two girls.”

 

“How the hell did that happen? I thought male submissive Drackens could only conceive five babies at once?” Braiden asked.

 

“They can…or at least, they’re supposed to.” Nasta said a little unsurely.

 

“I did only conceive five; two of them are identical twins.”

 

“You conceived five, but one of the fertilised pairs split to make two babies?” Farren asked.

 

Harry nodded. “One pair of identical twins, one pair of fraternal twins and two singletons.”

 

“Merlin Harry, why does it always have to be you?” Draco groaned. “We need another bassinet and another cot now.”

 

Harry jerked and panicked.

 

“Did you have to mention that now?!” Nasta demanded as he eased Harry back down and calmed him as best as he could.

 

“We have nowhere to put the sixth baby, what are we going to do?” He said upset.

 

“We have a pram, Harry. One night in a pram won’t harm the baby. We’ll get everything we need tomorrow. It’ll be just fine.” Nasta assured soothingly.

 

Harry nodded, calming down and as he came more into himself, something he suspected might have been helped along by a calming draught added to his tea along with the fever reducer, he asked to be helped into the living room, where he untied the piece of cloth from around his body and laid out six, beautiful, perfect babies on the rug in front of the cold, unlit fireplace.

He moved them around, getting them into the order they were born and he kissed them even as his older six huddled around him and peered at the newborn babies.

 

“They’re so beautiful, Mum, especially that one.” Tegan said, pointing to littlest baby on the end.

 

“He’s the sixth baby, the little surprise that I dragged out thinking he was a placenta.” Harry said with a smile. “Sit back kids, let your Fathers’ see them, they’re even more curious than you are.”

 

His kids did as he’d asked, moving so they could still see the newborns at the same time and Harry smoothed a tuft of blond hair from the face of his third born son and tucked a hand back into a little scratch mitt of his fifth born daughter.

 

“They’re in birth order, oldest to youngest. Boy, boy, boy, girl, girl, boy.” Harry said with a soft smile. “It took twenty minutes to get them all out.”

 

“That’s almost double your previous longest time.” Draco said concernedly.

 

Harry nodded. “I know. This little boy fell out of me…”

 

“I’ve heard that before.” Max said with a grin, ruffling Farren’s head. “Did he tear you apart as he fell out like this one did?”

 

Harry smiled and shook his head. “No, the incision was big enough for him to get through, but I had to check him when he fell out, just to make sure he was alright, that took a few minutes, the second one came out easily, the third was stuck under another baby’s leg, the fourth took a few minutes rooting around trying to find a neck to grab hold of, the fifth came out easily, the sixth was a complete surprise and I thought he was a placenta, so I about yanked him out, poor thing. He’s alright though.”

 

“Any Drackens?” Calix asked with a grin.

 

Harry gave him a mock glare. “You know not to ask that so soon, brat.”

 

Calix laughed. “I missed you, Mum.”

 

“I’m glad to be back too.” Harry sighed happily.

 

“So, whose are they?” Blaise asked with a smile. He hadn’t had a baby in a while, so Harry was happy to give him a wink.

 

“All four of you have one baby and two of you have two. The two sets of twins I mentioned.”

 

“Really? All of us have one?” Max asked with a grin, he got Draco and Blaise into a headlock, one under each arm, and he shook them vigorously as they complained and hissed at him.

 

“Yeah, the first two out were the identical twin boys. Congratulations Nas, you have another set of identical twins.”

 

Nasta grinned proudly as Harry handed the two boys over to him. Regan and Tegan slipped over and started at the two boys that were their full blooded brothers.

 

“The next two that were born were the fraternal twins, boy and then girl. Congratulations Draco.”

 

Draco grinned as Harry handed over the third born boy and the fourth born girl.

 

“I can tell that one’s mine.” Max said, pointing to the youngest boy.

 

“How?” Harry asked.

 

Max shrugged. “I just can. He looks like one of mine.”

 

Harry laughed. “You’re right, the boy is yours, Blaise, the little girl is yours.”

 

The proud Fathers picked up their little angels and Harry reconnected with his older babies as he took a break from the newborns for a little while. Their schedule was completely messed up, one cried every three hours, two cried every two hours, one cried every three and a half hours, one cried every four hours and one, the littlest one he hadn’t known was there, had to be woken up and fed otherwise he wouldn’t wake up at all.

His mates all groaned and cursed when Harry told them about the babies’ schedules.

 

“We’re never going to rest again!” Blaise groaned.

 

“Why doesn’t my son wake up for a feed unless he’s being forced awake?!” Max asked, very concerned about that piece of information.

 

Harry shrugged. “He’s more laid back than Calix was, he’s just very lazy. He’s happy to feed when he’s awake, he just won’t wake himself up.”

 

Harry smiled when his big boy, Farren, forced him to recline on him. He felt peaceful and as he inhaled deeply the smells of home and his children and his mates, he felt more relaxed and he fell asleep quickly.

 

“Dad, Mum’s drooling on me.” Farren complained five minutes later, being quiet so that he didn’t wake his Mother.

 

Draco chuckled and moved to pick Harry up, being excessively careful of him and the movement of his body as he hefted Harry up.

 

“Don’t let him hear you say he drools, you’ll be chewed out the same as us.”

 

“But look, my shirt is wet!” Farren pulled a face and all but ripped his shirt over his head and held it out gingerly. “Mum’s gross sometimes.”

 

All of the mates laughed and Draco shook his head as he took Harry up to their bed, settling him on the sheets and tucking him in, even though he really just wanted to dump his arse in the bath. He was filthy, covered in stale sweat and dried blood. He stunk to high heaven too, but he sucked it up and kissed Harry’s slack lips and left him in the bed. Harry would spend three or so hours in the morning soaking in a bath that had Max’s special healing potions and salts in it to help him recover, until then they had to put up with it.

Downstairs the older kids were far too riled up to go to bed as they cooed over their six new siblings. Nasta couldn’t help but worry over Harry though, quintuplets was bad enough and took a hell of a lot out of him…to find out that he had been carrying sextuplets, he swallowed and looked to the six tiny children that were already five days old. He wondered what the repercussions of having sextuplets would mean for Harry’s future fertility, having higher multiples in his fifties was going to strip away a lot of his inner strength. There was even a chance that this had been one higher pregnancy too many and that Harry would now never have another heat period. He wouldn’t be barren and theologically he would still be able to conceive a baby, but he just wouldn’t have a heat period and thus he wouldn’t fall pregnant again.

 

“Dad, I think this one’s hungry, he’s trying to suck on my nipple!” Farren cried out as he looked down at the baby that was mouthing around his chest, he was arching his back away from the baby to prevent him from latching on, but the baby was definitely rooting.

 

“That’ll teach you to walk around half naked!” Max said with a grin as he took the baby, Draco’s son, from Farren and offered him a bottle from the tea tray he’d just brought in.

 

“I didn’t know he’d try and latch on to me!”

 

“It’s because you have bigger boobs than anyone else.” Calix told him. “He obviously got confused; who did you say was the receiver between you and Sasha?”

 

“Calix!” Nasta snapped harshly as Farren growled lowly in his throat.

 

“I was just asking.” Calix said with a sullen pout.

 

“Don’t.” Braiden chastised his brother sternly. “Farren can be with whoever he wants, just like you can, like we all can.”

 

“He wants to be with a donkey.” Regan said in a whisper.

 

“I do not!” Calix shouted angrily.

 

“Be quiet or you’ll wake the babies!” Tegan hissed as she rocked one of her new brothers.

 

“I don’t want to be with a donkey.” Calix pouted.

 

“If you stopped picking on Farren then maybe we’d stop picking on you.” Leolin told him.

 

“What would you know? You don’t even have those urges yet.”

 

“Don’t you say anything about Leolin!” Tegan snapped protectively. “Just because you have urges for donkeys doesn’t mean we all have to.”

 

“Enough.” Nasta growled. “How old are you all now? I’d expect this behaviour from Serra and Senna, or even the quadruplets, but not from you. Stop it.”

 

The six of them pouted, but fell silent, watching as the newborn babies were fed and burped, knowing that even if they asked, today at least, they would not get the chance to feed their four new brothers and two new sisters.

 

“Get yourselves to bed; it’s already past your bed time.” Blaise told them.

 

They grumbled as they left the living room to go to bed, they met their Dad Draco on the way up to their rooms going back downstairs.

 

“Is Mum okay?” Leolin asked worriedly.

 

“He’s fine sweetheart.” Draco told him, pulling his tiny teen into a hug. “He’s just very tired and needs some good rest and an uninterrupted sleep for at least twelve hours. Having six babies at one time is going to be difficult for all of us for the next couple of months.”

 

“If they’re anything like Ceri, Ethan, Jason and Saeth then it’s going to be difficult for the next several years.” Tegan said with a smile.

 

“Well Sae is quite quiet, Tee.” Braiden pointed out. “Our Saeth isn’t anything like Ceri, Ethan or Jason.”

 

“You have to remember love; two of these sextuplets are mine.” Draco told them with a wink and set his children off laughing. “They’re not going to be like the quadruplets, now get to bed; I have a feeling that we’ll have a very early start tomorrow.”

 

Between the six newborns and the noise their younger children were going to make when they saw said newborns, knowing as they did that it would mean that their Mother was home…tomorrow was not going to be one of the incredibly rare peaceful days and all the kids were going to be riled up and over excited. He hoped Harry didn’t sleep for _too_ long tomorrow.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry blinked open his eyes and he groaned pathetically as he moved slightly, only to be made aware of every single ache and pain in his body.

He rolled over and he grinned when he saw a very familiar potion’s vial on the bedside table and a note from Max letting him know that he had to take it before he even thought of moving out of the bed. The word ‘thought’ was underlined for emphasis.

Harry swallowed the nasty potion down in one, took a few gulps from the glass of water that was next to the vial on the bedside table and he lay back against the pillows and just waited for the pain reliever to kick in.

He couldn’t believe that he’d given birth to sextuplets, he’d had six days to get used to it, but it still wasn’t sinking in. He knew that logically he had conceived only five babies, but he had been pregnant with six, he had spent the five months he had been pregnant carrying six babies inside of himself and that thought scared him…how worse could things have been if he’d not carried to five months? How much worse off would his babies have been if he had for some reason gone into labour in his fourth month when they’d had to share all of their vitamins, oxygen and blood flow between six of them, it was no wonder that his six babies had struggled to reach three pounds in weight, especially with him being two months short of his due date.

He couldn’t believe that every scan he’d had had missed the sixth baby as well, he knew that it was all just a tangle of limbs and cords on the ultrasound scans, but he would have thought that the heartbeat would have been picked up at least, but then he rationalised that with five heartbeats already to listen for, a sixth could have easily gone unnoticed. No, his sixth little boy was a complete surprise, a little gift just for him and they were all fine and perfect, he felt happy and proud to have six new children to love and care for, he couldn’t wait to show them off.

An hour later and he felt well enough to try and get himself up and out of the bed, he needed to help out a little with his newborns and his younger kids would know that he was home because they would have spent the day being introduced to the six new babies. He wondered exactly how difficult it would have been for his mates to keep the little ones out of the bedroom all day and he wondered if perhaps his older children had had a hand in keeping the little ones away from his bedroom while his mates looked after the six newborns.

He eased himself down the stairs and he knew from a check of the clock that it was just after dinner time. His younger babies would be going to bed soon, which is why he had decided to use a cleaning charm on himself, just to get rid of the smell and the dried blood until he could take a proper bath later, but he’d slept for a straight seventeen hours, longer than he thought possible, but he hadn’t woken up once that he remembered.

He smiled as he went into the living room and found his whole family inside, absolutely everywhere and doing everything imaginable, it took less than ten seconds for one of his children to look up and see him.

 

“MUMMY!”

 

Harry smiled as a little body leapt up from the floor and ran at him, arms thrown out wide and running full pelt at him screeching in excitement.

Harry caught that body only through experience as he put a stabilising leg out behind him to keep himself on his feet as he reconnected with his children.

 

“How are you Loren?”

 

“I miss you Mummy, you were gone for forever! Daddy said I couldn’t go and see you either when the babies came home.”

 

“I was sleeping, love.” Harry said as he touched all the little bodies around him, ruffling heads and accepting hugs as all his little babies surrounded him.

 

“Alright, come on; let your Mum sit down.” Max told them as he extracted Harry out of the mass of bodies and got him sat down. “Are you alright?”

 

Harry nodded. “That potion really helped.”

 

“I thought that it might.” Max kissed him and sat next to him, accepting a little twenty-three month old Sully onto his lap so that their little boy could reach Harry and snuggle in without putting pressure on his body.

 

“How are the newborns?” Harry asked.

 

“I have no idea how you dealt with them, Harry.” Blaise told him. “You sort one out, another cries, you sort that one out and another cries, it’s never ending, you must have had absolutely no sleep in those first five days at all.”

 

Harry smiled. “It was difficult. Especially with the littlest one not waking up for feeds.”

 

“That little one is going to cause problems; I can’t believe he doesn’t wake up.”

 

“That did throw me a little.” Harry admitted. “I was exhausted, in pain, trying to recover and there were six of them. I don’t know how many feeds I missed before I caught on to the fact that he wasn’t crying often enough for a feed.”

 

“Healer Almus is coming around tomorrow morning to check them over.” Nasta told him.

 

Harry nodded as he smiled at his year old triplets who were bathed and dressed in their pyjamas.

 

“Is Draco on bathing duty?” He asked.

 

Nasta nodded. “He’s just about finished, but Cyneric is giving him problems.”

 

Harry sighed. “What’s he done now?”

 

“He doesn’t want to get out of the bath, but Kallan does and Draco’s split between them both, he’s dealing with it, don’t worry.”

 

Harry nodded and he startled as Sully suddenly moved down from Max’s lap and lay down on the floor, his legs open and relaxed, looking at them expectantly.

 

“Sully, we’ve told you that if you want a wee or a poo, then you have to use the potty.” Max told their stubborn son.

 

“No.” Sully replied back simply. “Want Mummy to change me.”

 

“He needs to rest, Sully. How about I change you?” Braiden tried to compromise.

 

“No! Mummy do it.”

 

Harry sighed and he shifted himself carefully to the floor. He changed his almost two year old son’s nappy and got him in a fresh one as he pretended to nibble and bite along his skinny little legs while he did so.

 

“I see he’s still refusing to use the potty.”

 

“He just doesn’t want to know. He’ll be in nappies until he hits puberty, I swear.” Max sighed.

 

Harry scoffed. “It won’t take that long; he just needs some extra encouragement. Our Sully has always been a bit clingy, he’s just clinging on tight to what he knows and the more we try to change what he knows, the harder he fights the change.”

 

Draco came down with a pair of freshly bathed three year old twins who were dressed in cotton pyjamas.

 

“Ma! Ma!” The little one called out, his sleepy expression turning excited and alert the moment he caught sight of Harry.

 

“Hello Ric, how are you?” Harry asked as he took his oldest Faerie twin and snuggled him on his lap.

 

“Ma!”

 

Harry smiled and kissed Cyneric gently.

 

“Are you feeling alright?” Draco asked as he bent down to pass over a squirming Kallan, sneaking a kiss as he did so.

 

“Fine, still a little tired, but then yesterday I was completely exhausted, but other than that, I’m okay.”

 

“Are you hungry?” Max asked.

 

Harry shook his head. “No, I’m alright at the minute, I haven’t been out of feral mode long enough for normal function to have resumed just yet, my digestive system hasn’t even started back up.”

 

Max nodded and Harry smiled when a big hand touched his head and he tipped his neck back to see his biggest child to date. Mace was eleven years old and Harry had never seen such a muscled eleven year old, when he started weight lifting at sixteen, like they’d all agreed on when Mace had asked when he could start, he was going to be massive, like his granddad Myron, who he had been named after and who it seemed he was taking after in body height and weight too.

 

“How are you, Mum? Dad stopped me from going to see you earlier; I didn’t think I’d see you when I got home from my martial arts class. I thought you might be back in bed when I got home.”

 

“How is that going?” Harry asked him. “Did you move up a belt when I was nesting?”

 

“No, my belt match is next week. I _will_ go up to orange though.” He said confidently. “I’ll be a black belt before I leave school!”

 

“I’ll be there to watch you.” Harry said with a smile.

 

Harry eased himself back up onto the settee with Max’s help and he sighed.

 

“How’s Phoebe doing with her gymnastics?”

 

Draco groaned. “Loren begged to go along when I took her the other week and now he’s in Tumble Tots too. He absolutely loves it.”

 

Harry grinned. “Is he really, is he doing well?”

 

“He’s doing fantastic.” Nasta told him with a smirk. “That’s three kids we have in Tumble Tots and Sully wants to follow our Lore, so he might end up in Tumble Tots too.” 

 

Harry laughed. “At least they’re keeping active. Has Serra won another badge in swimming?”

 

“Not yet, you nested for a while, but you’ve surprisingly missed very little.” Nasta said with a long look over Harry’s head.

 

Harry narrowed his eyes and turned to see his older eight all sat together at the cluster of settees at the far end of the room.

 

“Why do I get the feeling that the ‘surprisingly little’ topic that I missed is earth shatteringly huge?”

 

“It is.” Max said with a worried, sad frown over to the group of eight.

 

“What happened?” Harry asked starting to get angry and upset, feeding from his mates’ moods.

 

“We’ll tell you in an hour when these have gone to bed, you can speak to him yourself.”

 

Harry bit back exactly what he thought of being out of the loop with his own children, but he also knew that the conversation likely wasn’t for young ears for his mates to have suggested that they wait until they couldn’t overhear them, but as he looked to his eight oldest, he knew that he could discount his three girls, whatever had happened it was because of one of his remaining five sons, he couldn’t help thinking the worst. He really hoped that Leolin hadn’t had a tantrum and injured himself again.

He was distracted from that problem when his children remembered his birthday presents and rushed to be the first one to retrieve ‘their’ gift and hand it over to him. Harry grinned as he realised he was now thirty-four and he hadn’t had to put up with Richard ribbing him over it the whole day. He opened his gifts and exclaimed happily over them as he hugged and kissed each child in thanks, but all too soon he felt himself wavering as exhaustion took over and he decided that it was time to get his kids in bed and finally find out what was happening with one of his older sons.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Unfortunately the conversation didn’t happen. It took hours longer than usual to get the kids into bed because they all wanted to stay awake with Harry and by the time they finally got them all into bed and staying there, got the sextuplets sorted out and fed, changed and into their new bassinets, that Harry was very happy to note that there were now six of them, he was bone deep exhausted and he had fallen asleep just five minutes after sitting down on the settee, he hadn’t gotten to have his bath, he hadn’t even gotten to drink his tea before he’d fallen asleep and he’d been carried to bed by an adoring Max.

The next day they were busy with sorting out breakfast for their thirty-one children, then a pleased Healer Almus was there checking over all six of their newborns, which had surprised him for a moment, before he was checking them over and declaring them all healthy and doing very well. Then came the visiting family members.

 

“I can’t believe you had the world’s first set of male submissive born sextuplets.” Richard said with a grin. “Look at these little beauties!”

 

Harry smiled tiredly. He was exhausted again already and it was only just past midday. He’d managed to squeeze in a quick bath, but he’d had to share it with Loren and Sully, who had refused to leave him alone long enough for him to take a peaceful bath on his own, not even when Calix had offered to play with them.

 

His sextuplets were passed around as the other children were fussed over and Mace had monopolised Myron and Harry grinned when he noticed that Mace was standing to the fullest height that he possibly could without going up on his toes. It was adorable to see how much he adored and looked up to his Granddad Myron.

 

“Sweet one, I am so proud of you.” Alexander told him. “Carrying six babies and then keeping your cool and calm to birth them. Though I was very worried when the boys told me that you hadn’t come out of your nest and then the time was flying by as we waited five days for you to come out.”

 

Harry nodded. “I know, it took me that long to come back into myself. Looking after all six of them is exhausting and then I stayed in Dracken form when I got a fever, it helped me recover faster.”

 

“This is Max’s baby though, right?” Richard asked as he held out the youngest baby.

 

Harry nodded. “The one that won’t wake up for a feed. We have to wake him up to get him to feed.”

 

“He is getting enough though, isn’t he?” Myron asked, cutting off his conversation with Mace for a moment. Harry always marvelled at how he could hold a conversation without stuttering and still listen to everything that was being said around him, that was a serious talent.

 

“Yes. He’s feeding fine when he’s woken up, he just doesn’t wake himself up for it.”

 

“I can’t believe you had one from each mate.” Kimberly laughed as she cuddled with one of Nasta’s identical twin boys.

 

Harry grinned at that. “I know. Nasta got two, Draco got two, Blaise and Max got one each.”

 

“Have you given them respectable names?” Lucius asked him as he cradled Blaise’s baby girl tightly.

 

Harry’s grin widened.

 

“You have! You’ve named them!” Braiden said excitedly from where he was sitting on the floor with Neave.

 

“Only in my head.” Harry corrected. “I had an idea before I started nesting, but with the littlest one coming along, I wasn’t sure it would still work.”

 

“You’re going to name them similarly, aren’t you?” Draco sighed.

 

“You know I like my multiples to be connected in some way, these six are no different.” Harry replied stubbornly.

 

“My children are going to have ridiculous names.” Draco bemoaned.

 

Harry glared. “I was thinking of naming your daughter Eris.” He said with narrowed eyes. “Eris Rhea Potter-Malfoy.”

 

Draco looked surprised. “I like that name.” He said.

 

Harry huffed. “There’s no need to sound so relieved or look so surprised. Have I ever named the kids anything you didn’t like?”

 

Draco snorted. “None of my blood children, but there have been a few that are more than a little…questionable.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes at Draco’s dramatics.

 

“Little Eris.” Ave smiled. “I like my little sister’s name, Mum.”

 

“Thank you, sweetheart. Eris is the name of a dwarf planet and Rhea is the name of a moon of Saturn, you know the Black family liked Astrology a bit too much.”

 

“How about my other little sister?” Eva asked curiously, looking at the baby in her Granddad Lucius’ arms.

 

“Ellette.” Harry said with a look at Blaise. “Ellette Emilie Potter-Zabini.”

 

“Does my new Grandson have a name?” Narcissa asked softly as she fussed over the little boy in Marianna’s arms.

 

Harry shrugged a little helplessly. “I was thinking of naming him Errai. Pronounced Eh-Ray, but spelt E, R, R, A, I.”

 

“Oh here you go.” Draco sighed. “It’s Leolin Siorus, Xabiere Xanthus, Saeth Adain, Cyneric Garin and Kallan Deverell all over again. Why is it that you name every one in several babies something like this?”

 

Harry glared harder. “His name, Draco, is Errai Corvus Potter-Malfoy. You won’t change that. Errai is a star in the constellation Cepheus, Corvus is a constellation. I’m trying to stick to the Black family tradition, as you wanted me to Draco, but there are only so many names that I actually like!”

 

“What are my sons called?” Nasta asked, breaking the silent glaring match that had fallen between Harry and Draco.

 

“The first born is named Eiren. Pronounced Eye-ren, but spelt E, I, R, E, N. Eiren Emlyn Potter-Delericey.”

 

“That’s a lovely name.” Nasta told him, giving his lips a lingering kiss. “The second one?”

 

“Eurei. Spelt E, U, R, E, I and pronounced Ur-Ree.” Harry said as he looked to the baby in Aneirin’s arms. “Eurei Emmett Potter-Delericey.”

 

“What about my boy?” Max asked. “I take it his name will begin with an ‘E’”

 

Harry nodded. “He’s the problem, as I didn’t know I was having him, I didn’t have any sort of idea for a name for him.”

 

“But you have one now?” Max all but begged, pouting at him.

 

Harry smiled. “Emerus. Emerus Embry Potter-Maddison.”

 

“They’re all EE’s, for Exceeds Expectations.” Richard giggled. “You really did Exceed Expectations too, birthing six of them.”

 

“Except for Dad Draco’s new babies, Eris is an ER and Errai is an EC.” Calix pointed out.

 

“That’s because your Dad Draco likes complaining about what I name my babies.” Harry pointed out.

 

“I like all of their names.” Braiden said with a smile. “I love my name and all of my brothers and sisters names too.”

 

Harry smiled and he settled down with his family. He spent a very happy several hours with his family, reconnecting with them, laughing and joking as everyone fussed over his babies, old and new as he cuddled with his three little daughters, they were fourteen months old now and developing by the day, he couldn’t believe how well they were coming on as they all babbled at him sweetly.

Lunch passed in chaos, dinner was even worse and then Harry was putting his babies to bed and once again he fell asleep before anything could be said or brought up, it had been a jam packed few days.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry finally got to hear the news when his mates made the time to sit them down with Farren the next day when the younger kids had gone down for their afternoon nap and the kids too old for a nap were occupied with their older brothers and sisters in the games room.

 

“I…I’m…”

 

Nasta sighed. “Just tell your Mother, Farren.” He encouraged when Farren stuttered himself to a stop.

 

“You didn’t mate when I was nesting, did you?” Harry asked shocked.

 

“No! No, Mum…I’m…I’m gay.” Farren said softly.

 

“I know.” Harry said with a look. “What happened? Has another male submissive turned up? Please tell me I wasn’t nesting when you mated, that I wasn’t there for you when you needed me.”

 

“You know I’m gay?” Farren asked with shock, utterly dumbfounded.

 

“Of course I know, you’re my son. I’ve known for a few years now.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Farren demanded.

 

Harry laughed. “Farren love, it’s not for me to tell you what you are, it’s for you to decide for yourself and then come to us. Is that what you thought I’d missed?”

 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Blaise asked with a frown.

 

Harry snorted. “Because I won’t gossip about our children with anyone. If I have a thought or an insight into something, I’ll keep it to myself, it’s your downfall if you can’t see what I can.”

 

“I’ve got a boyfriend.” Farren cut in, emboldened by Harry’s easy acceptance and obvious love.

 

Harry blinked and then his face softened with realisation. “He’s not a Dracken, is he.”

 

Farren looked down at his lap and shook his head. “No, he’s not. His name’s Sasha, I really like him, Mum.”

 

Harry felt his heart constrict and he swallowed past his tight throat. This was the horrible part of being a Dracken…if a submissive Dracken wanted to mate to a non-Dracken, they could they just had to give up the ability to have their own children in order to do so, but for a dominant Dracken, they could be with a non-Dracken, they could have babies with a non-Dracken, but they would forever be enslaved to attend Dracken mate meetings for submissives even if they truly, deeply loved the non-Dracken they were with. Their Drackens would be bitter and furious with the lack of a mate, they’d never be fully happy without their own submissive and Harry didn’t want that for his son, he didn’t want Farren to only be half happy, to be content instead of fully happy and settled. He sucked in a deep breath and pushed aside his own thoughts and feelings so that he could give Farren the clinical facts he needed to know without the inflection of his own personal emotions colouring his words.

 

“You know what this means, don’t you Farren?”

 

“That I’m completely messed up and being selfish for wanting to put Sasha through this.”

 

“No baby, it means that you’re in for a hard life if you choose to stay with Sasha. You’ll have to be honest with him, love. There will be no lying or hiding the truth here and it’ll be a hard, bitter road for you both. Sasha might resent the fact that you are being forced to go to meetings to lust over a submissive, he may not understand that you can’t help it and that will lead to bad feelings and bitter anger.”

 

“You think it would be better if I forget about Sasha.” Farren said miserably.

 

“No Farren, I want you to know in your heart that Sasha is the one for you, that your love together will last for years to come and not just until you both graduate. If you choose Sasha, Farren, you have to be prepared for the uphill struggle that will follow afterwards.”

 

“You…you want me to choose Sasha?” Farren asked with hope in his teal eyes.

 

Harry sighed. “I want you to be happy, Farren. I want you to choose for yourself, I want you to have all of the facts before making any sort of decision and I want you to understand how difficult this will be if you want to keep Sasha as a partner.”

 

“You’re trying to turn me off.” Farren accused angrily.

 

Harry set his jaw. “I’m not. I’m trying to make you see from both sides, Farren. When I was having my meetings I automatically sent away all the dominants who were in current relationships, but not all submissives are that thoughtful, some even keep the married or committed dominants there just to torture them and ruin their relationships and their lives.”

 

“I’ll just go and then leave again.” Farren said stubbornly.

 

“It’s not that easy, kid.” Max said with a sigh. “The overwhelming urge to attend is unavoidable, the call will drag you to wherever the meeting is being held, but it takes some serious will power to up and leave without a mate. I couldn’t even think of doing it until I was in my mid-twenties and being rejected was soul destroying. It hurt, Farren. You found that out when you had your first meeting, you were depressed for days afterwards.”

 

Farren looked at his lap and Harry almost swallowed his tongue when he saw that Farren’s eyes were welling up with tears.

 

“Oh, Farren.”

 

Harry got up and sat next to his larger son, who turned and hugged him crushingly tight, burying his face in his neck and Harry felt his tears.

 

“I just want to be with Sasha!” Farren cried.

 

Harry cradled the back of Farren’s head and stroked his fingers through his hair and over his neck.

 

“If it’s what you want, love, then we’ll help you. We’ll sort it, but you have to be prepared for how hard it’s going to be, how challenging and difficult, but if it’s what you want, your family will be by your side, Farren. You have to tell Sasha though, you have to be completely honest and if he says no, then you have to accept that. If he can’t deal with it, then you have to let him go, sweetheart, because trying to force him to stay with you when he can’t accept it will make everything worse in the end, are you prepared to give Sasha up so that he can be happy?”

 

Farren nodded miserably.

 

“Are you sure?”

 

“I’m sure.” He sniffed. “I want to be happy and I want Sasha, but I want him to be happy more.”

 

“That’s very mature of you, Farren. I’m proud of you.” Nasta said softly.

 

“I just…I want to be with Sasha, I really like him…I think…I think that I love him and I just want to protect him and be with him. I want to spend every minute I can with him and I’m dreading going back to Hogwarts because I won’t be able to see him. We talk all the time, on the phone, on my laptop, even via owl when we’re both at school, but…but it’s not enough, I want to be with him all the time and I can’t wait until I graduate just so that I can spend more time with him.”

 

Harry shared a look with his mates and he took a deep breath.

 

“Whatever you want to do, love. We’ll support you.” Harry said seriously.

 

 Farren nodded and with a last squeeze, he mumbled something about going to call Sasha and he left the room. It was silent for several moments.

 

“What are we going to do?” Draco asked.

 

“What I said we would.” Harry said softly. “We support him in what he wants to do and we’ll be here for him if it blows up in his face.”

 

“You don’t think we’re setting him up for a harder fall?” Draco asked.

 

Harry shook his head. “No. He has to make his own decisions and he has to make his own mistakes. We can’t control him or his thoughts and feelings. He has to do this because he wants to, even if it does come crashing down around his ears, he has to do it for himself.”

 

The silence stretched on as they all got lost in their thoughts, mentally preparing themselves for the hard battle that was stretching out before them.

 

“What’s this Sasha like?” Harry asked.

 

“He’s a good kid, always laughing.” Max said.

 

“He’s about five foot seven, slim, blond hair and brown eyes. He’s pretty more than handsome, but he seems smart.” Nasta told him.

 

“I like him.” Draco said with a shrug. “He’s polite, respectful and he’s good with the younger kids, though Farren has to intervene when Calix or Taren start on him. He doesn’t want to upset Farren’s brothers, but you can see he just wants to punch them in the mouth.”

 

Harry laughed. “I like him already.”

 

“He’s been around every single day since Nasta found out about the sneaking to the park in the middle of the night. He is nice.” Blaise said.

 

“I can’t wait to meet him. He better not hurt my baby though, or he’ll have me to deal with.”

 

His mates smiled indulgently at him.

 

“Well I better go and start dinner. Is lamb alright for you?”

 

“You know it is.” Draco said with a grin. “I do love lamb.”

 

Max kissed him and stood with a stretched before he kissed them all and then exiled himself to the kitchen.

 

“I’ll send you help now.” Nasta called out after him.

 

“It’s not help when it takes me longer to cook dinner with them here than on my own!” Max called back.

 

“They have to learn!” Nasta argued as he went up the stairs to rout out the next bunch of kids that were on the rota for helping in the kitchen.

 

Harry smiled and rubbed at his stomach.

 

“Are you in pain?”

 

“A little. It’s not so bad any more though.”

 

“Mummy!”

 

Harry smiled as he took Sully from Braiden and set him on his knees, Sully still snuggled into his remaining baby bulk and yawned.

 

“I love you, Mummy.”

 

“I love you too, sweetheart.”

 

“When I grow to be a big Dracken, I want to be just like you.”

 

Harry didn’t admit how much that made him well up as his throat constricted tight.

 

“I’ve told you love, you have to be born a Dracken, you can’t grow to be one.” Harry said through his tight throat.

 

Sully just snuggled in tight and Harry held his little boy as slowly the house woke up around him after the napping children had woken up and the older children were free to make as much noise as they wanted.

 

“Xabiere, stop messing around with that broccoli!”

 

Harry looked in the direction of the kitchen before he looked at Blaise and they both started laughing.

Dinner was loud and fast paced, but all his children had been taught table manners, Draco had even gone so far as to tell them that when they were eating a family meal at the table, you were not allowed to leave your seat unless you asked politely and even then it was usually for the toilet. Everyone stayed in their seats until everyone was finished.

Harry took his potions after his dinner under the hawk eye of Max, who nodded his approval as Harry drained them dutifully.

That was when the peace was broken by furious hammering on their front door. It started all of them, especially their younger children, who all looked to them as if asking them what to do. Max, Draco and Blaise left the room when the sextuplets were heard crying from the living room. Harry stood up and garnered his children’s attention.

 

“It seems we have a visitor.” He said with a smile. “You kids finish your desserts.”

 

“I’ll get the door.” Nasta said firmly and he left as soon as Draco, Max and Blaise came into the kitchen with the six wailing newborns. Harry put himself between the door and his children.

 

The hammering didn’t stop until Nasta had answered the door and even then, the man on the other side was shouting at Nasta loudly. Swear words were prevalent and so were the words ‘perverts’, ‘abhorrent demons’ and ‘child corrupting freaks’.

Nasta came into the kitchen and the red faced man with him took a look at the pale, wide eyed faces of the staring children and he had the grace to blush and look uncomfortable.

 

“Have you kids finished?” Nasta asked.

 

They all nodded, their fear now replaced by curiosity in the face of their Father’s calm.

 

“Go into the upstairs playroom, all of you. Braiden, Regan, Tegan, Calix, you four will watch them.”

 

The four named teenagers nodded and they escorted the kids out. Nasta stopped Farren from leaving with a hand on his arm.

 

“Not you Farren, take a seat.”

 

At the mention of his name, the man who was invading their home started glaring at Farren, sizing him up and squaring his shoulders to him, which was a little hard as Farren was taller than this man and his shoulder spread was threatening to overtake this grown man’s too.

 

“Please take a seat Mister Bennet.”

 

At that name Farren paled and found sudden interest in the table top. Harry had his forming idea confirmed then. This must have been Sasha’s Father.

 

“This is Mister Alistair Bennet, Mister Bennet; these are my lovers and life partners, Max, Draco, Blaise and Harry. This is our son Farren.”

 

“He’s corrupting my boy!” Alistair Bennet burst out furiously, thrown by the polite introductions, but not willing to give up on what he’d come here for, which apparently seemed to be harassing their Farren.

 

“I assume that you are Sasha’s Father?” Harry asked.

 

“Yes! That boy is perverting my Sasha! I won’t have it.”

 

“Perverting him?” Draco asked in that drawling way of his that made others feel ridiculously stupid.

 

“Sasha has all these strange ideas and thoughts in his head and it’s all thanks to him.” Bennet said jabbing a finger in Farren’s direction. “He’s been nothing but trouble, a bad influence on my Sasha!”

 

“How?” Max asked. “I fail to understand how our boy could have done anything to Sasha; they’ve been getting on just fine and Sasha hasn’t been around in a few days because Harry just gave birth to sextuplets. The last time he was here though they were acting as normal.”

 

“You didn’t have a fight with Sasha on the phone, did you Farren?” Harry asked concernedly.

 

“No. Sash and I are fine as far as I know; I spoke to him last night on the phone for four hours telling him about my new brothers and sisters, he wants to come over when everything calms down to see them.”

 

“He won’t be coming over here ever again!”

 

“Why not?” Blaise asked curiously.

 

“That boy is trying to have relations with my son!”

 

“Is that true, Farren?” Nasta asked sternly.

 

“No!”

 

“Don’t you lie!” Bennet all but spat at Farren and Harry stood and glared at him.

 

“You are in our home, invading on our family, you will not speak to my son in such a way! If he says he’s not having relations with Sasha then he’s not.”

 

“I’ve seen them at it myself!”

 

Harry drew back and looked to Farren. “Would you care to explain this Farren?”

 

“I don’t know what he means, I swear! Sasha and I have never done… _that_!”

 

“I’ve seen you! All over each other, kissing my boy right there in front of me with absolutely no shame!”

 

“Wait, wait, wait. We’re talking about hugs and kisses?” Max asked in astonishment. “They’re teenagers in love, of course they’re going to hug and kiss, I thought you were talking about sex!”

 

“We haven’t done that, Dad!” Farren insisted. “Neither of us feel ready to go that far yet.”

 

“YET?!” Bennet exploded. “You stay away from my son you pervert!”

 

“That is enough!” Nasta growled. “You will not come in here and say such things about my son!” He hissed. “What they are doing is perfectly natural and normal, how dare you try and make them feel like they’re doing something wrong or shameful when they’re not, how can you even justify doing that to your own son. I feel sorry for poor Sasha.”

 

“He’s just confused!” Bennet exploded. “Once I’ve sorted him out…”

 

“Sorted him out?” Max repeated incredulously. “There’s nothing to sort out because there is absolutely nothing wrong with that boy. He’s kind, polite and clever, he’s happy and healthy and he makes our son happy. So he’s come out as gay to you, so bloody what? You should be proud that you have a son like him, gay or not. There are much worse things he could be, like a murderer or a rapist for example, he could be hooked on Pixie Pollen or addicted to Firewhiskey, but he isn’t. You should be down on your knees begging him for his forgiveness for this severe overreaction that you’re having, that poor boy must be feeling terrible at the moment because of you.”

 

“Because of me? None of this is _my_ fault! It’s his fault!” He said pointing back at Farren. “My son was always a sweet boy, now because of him he’s argumentative and he won’t do as he’s told!”

 

“Sounds like a normal teenager to me.” Max snorted.

 

“So he won’t let you walk all over him and tell him what to think or feel. That’s good.” Blaise said. “I told you I liked him. He’s a strong, independent boy and I’m glad he won’t let you change his mind when he has no need to change who he is or who he likes just because you happen to not like it.”

 

“He’s a fifteen year old boy; he doesn’t know what he wants!” Bennet exploded again, his face rapidly going a shade of puce that Harry had only ever seen on one Vernon Dursley before. Hell he hadn’t thought of his Uncle in years, he was likely still in prison though.

 

“I’m sorry, but if you believe that then Sasha obviously never got his intelligence from you.” Draco sneered. “They’re teenagers now, not babies. They have their own likes and dislikes, they know their own minds and they don’t need to be told what they want or who they are, they need a bit of guidance and correcting, but at that age they know what they want and you won’t be able to stop Sasha being gay and honestly you shouldn’t even be trying to stop him from being who he is, just accept it and move on. Sasha is gay and he was born that way, if you love your son at all, you’ll suck up your ignorant pig-headedness and stop with this attitude before you hurt him.”

 

“We can understand your concerns.” Harry assured him. “We know you want to look out for your Sasha as we want to look out for our son, we want to protect our children, I know how you feel. Trust me; they will not be having sex under this roof. If they’re not in the garden with thirty other children and us supervising, then yes, they are in Farren’s room, but that door is not to be closed at any moment for any reason.”

 

“We don’t want to have sex yet.” Farren said. “We want to get to know one another properly first. I want to date him and we both agreed that if we did want to do that then we’d wait until we’d both graduated first, when we were both adults.”

 

Harry smiled at how mature Farren was. They’d raised him very well and it seemed the wind had been taken out of Alistair Bennet’s sails as he had no idea what to say to what he’d been told by all of them.

 

“Now, we like having Sasha here, our younger children in particular like him because he caves in when they beg him to play games, unlike their older brothers, so he’s something of a hero to them. We would like to keep having Sasha around, contrary to your belief when you arrived; we are not hiding Sasha away upstairs for our son to do Merlin knows what to him. He comes over late morning, we feed him lunch, he plays with the kids, he’ll laugh and joke, he’s polite and well mannered, he’s a good kid and it seems a shame for him to be punished because you refuse to accept him the way he is.” Max said.

 

“No child should have to change or feel they need to hide who they are for fear of reprimand or even abuse.” Harry said softly. “Sasha obviously thinks the world of you and he wanted to tell you about every part of himself and his life, why should he be punished for that? I don’t like sweetcorn, should I punish my children who do like it and eat it in front of me? Of course not. You don’t have to like that Sasha is gay, you don’t have to like the thought of the things he’s going to do whether it’s in a year or several years, he’s still going to do them, with our Farren or not, you can bet he’ll do it with someone, because that is who he is, it was how he was born and it’s what will make him the happiest. But as a parent you have to accept that he will be doing these things, that he will be bringing other men home for you to meet and to any family gatherings because he shouldn’t have to hide it or hide away any of the men he loves! You are his Father, you are supposed to always have his back, you are supposed to always be in his corner to fight for him when he needs it, he shouldn’t have to be fighting you as well when he’s so readily come to you and told you something so personal about himself.”

 

 “I don’t…I don’t think I could ever accept it. It’s not right.”

 

“You can accept it.” Nasta said gruffly in his no nonsense tone. “He’s your son and you love him very much. A Father’s love for his son goes deep and intellectually you know that what we’re saying is true and it makes sense. There is nothing wrong with him loving other men, or rather boys at the moment. You might not like it, you may not even be able to stomach the thought of what two men do in bed together, but it’s not like you have to do those things yourself, it’s not like Sasha is going to come home each day and regale you with a blow by blow account of his activities. He’s going to be exactly the same, only he’ll have boyfriends and one day he might even have a Husband and children, that’s all.”

 

“Think of it this way.” Harry told him seriously. “Imagine someone forcing you to be with a man, telling you it wasn’t right or it was dirty to be with a woman and you had to be with a man because that was the ‘right’ way. Think of the disgust you’d feel, the misery it would cause you for the rest of your life as you try and live a lie that hurts you every single day and hurts those around you as well, as all the while your bitter resentment for the people who forced you into that situation grows until you just can’t take it anymore and you snap, cutting off all ties with them and going to live your life the way you want to on your own, alone without your family beside you. That’s what Sasha will feel if you try to force him to be with a woman, because he isn’t sexually attracted to them, he’s attracted to boys. I know if someone tried to get me with a woman I’d probably be sick. They’re pretty, kind, funny, hell some of them are downright beautiful, but I just don’t feel any sort of physical connection to them, there’s nothing there, no twinge of arousal, no gut twisting ache when I look at one of them…nothing that makes me think, oh god I have to have her in bed. I just don’t see women that way because I was born with an attraction to men, I was born gay and so was my Farren and so was your Sasha and there is nothing wrong with any of us and if you make it out to be something wrong to Sasha, then you’re going to end up alienating him, because he can’t stop feeling the way he does and he can’t just switch it off and start liking women as you want him too.”

 

“I think we’ve given you enough to think about for one night, let me walk you home.” Nasta said as the silence stretched on and he stood up from the table and shared a look with them all as Alistair Bennet got wearily to his unsteady feet.

 

The distraction came with the raucous wailing of hungry newborns and they moved like a well-oiled machine to sort out the three criers who wanted a bottle.

 

“I…congratulations on the birth of your…six was it?” Mister Bennet said awkwardly.

 

“Yes, sextuplets. Honestly I don’t think I’ll fall pregnant again for a long while.” Harry chuckled as he stood and put a hand to his empty baby pouch.

 

He rubbed an arm over his face and swiped his hair out of his way before he made his way over to pick up his tiny Emerus to wake him up and try to tempt him into taking a bottle. Blaise batted him away and picked up Emerus himself.

 

“You…you’re Harry Potter!” Alistair said faintly.

 

Harry gave him a look. “Yes. I am and these are my life partners, these are my children and this strapping boy is my second born, my Farren and he happens to like your Sasha. I’d be happy to welcome him, and the rest of your family too, into my family, because I have a feeling that my Farren won’t give up on Sasha quite so easily.” Harry said as he put an arm around Farren’s neck, his forearm across his chest and pulled him into a hug, kissing the top of his head.

 

Farren just smiled and held Harry’s hand to his heart and Mister Bennet looked like he’d faint on the spot.

Nasta led the poor man away and the front door closed soon after and Harry relaxed and he hugged Farren tightly.

 

“What a horrible man, I hope you haven’t met him too many times.” He told Farren as he kissed his cheeks.

 

“Mum! Stop it.” Farren whined. “It’s bad enough I had to sit here and listen to you speaking about being in bed with women and other men, I was the one who was almost sick!”

 

Harry laughed and he kissed Farren one last time.

 

“Go and tell the others that it’s safe for them to come down. I think a family film is in order tonight before bed.”

 

“I’ll get the snacks ready.” Max said as he finished feeding Eiren and burped him, putting him back into his bassinet.

 

“Mumma!” Harry smiled as he was attacked by a wave of kids all worried about him.

 

“The man never hurt you, did he Mummy, you’re not at full strength yet from the babies!” His six year old Luce told him seriously.

 

“I’m fine; we’re going to watch a film together as a family tonight, all of us. Your Daddy Max gets to pick the film tonight.”

 

“Will the new babies be there Mummy? I don’t think they’ll like it.”

 

“It’s a little late for the new babies to be up I think.” Harry said with a smile.

 

“Lia, Nimi and Vanna all fell asleep too.” Regan told him.

 

Harry nodded. “I expected that, Mister Bennet was here for a while.”

 

“Tegan and I put them to bed.” Regan nodded. “They’re fine and we made absolutely sure that the sides of the cots were secure.”

 

Harry smiled. “Well done. Now go and make sure that you’re in your pyjamas, it has to be comfy and cosy!”

 

His kids laughed and his older kids whooped in joy as they rushed off to change into something more comfortable as the younger ones, who were already in their pyjamas thanks to their attentive older siblings, rushed to get the best seats in the living room, leaving the one settee free because it was ‘Mummy and Daddies’ settee.’

Max brought in snacks and a mug of hot chocolate for everyone and Harry settled down on the settee with a squirming Sully on his lap and little Loren tucked into his side, between him and Draco.

They didn’t start the film until Nasta came back home and had changed himself into his pyjamas and had joined them, the kids urging him to change fast, to walk quicker as they were ramped up for their film. Max started the film as Nasta squeezed himself between Max and Blaise, settling himself down and accepting the six year old Lian onto his lap.

Harry soaked up the atmosphere as he gazed at his family, who were all enraptured by the film that Max had chosen. He couldn’t imagine anything breaking them apart, let alone something as small and simple as his child’s sexual orientation. He loved his children more than that, he loved them for who they were and it would take more than finding out that his child was seeing someone of the same gender to even make him bat an eyelash. He didn’t think there was anything a child of his could do to make him ever stop loving them, even if he was disappointed or shamed, he would still love them and he hoped that Alistair Bennet came to realise that he loved his son more than he cared for his sexual orientation, because if he didn’t, then Harry was afraid of what would become of poor Sasha, but more importantly, he thought as he looked at his second oldest child, lounging on the floor with a sleeping Cyneric cuddled on his lap, laughing at a scene in the film, he was worried about what would become of his Farren.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So I wanted to post this chapter today, it seemed special to me to post this chapter on the exact day that the sextuplets were born and I hope you lovelies enjoyed it.  
> The Rise of the Drackens is finally going to be getting a bit of attention; chapter 91 should be posted next week, but until then please enjoy this chapter,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	42. The Joy and Heartache of Halloween

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> October 2003  
> Braiden – 6 years  
> Quintuplets – 5 years  
> Eva + Ave – 4 years  
> Taren – 3 years, 8 months  
> Lai – 3 years  
> Xabiere – 1 year, 8 months   
> Mace + Evie – 11 months  
> Mollie – 6 months

The Joy and Heartache of Halloween

 

It had been a very long and busy day waiting for that evening, Harry thought to himself with a sad smile. His children were all very excited and he grinned as his little Calix rushed passed him, dressed in a ‘zombie rabbit’ costume. The excitement had been building to a crescendo all day and it had finally hit a head when it had started getting dark at four in the afternoon.

His children were all dressed up and armed with treat bags, that Nasta insisted on them having as they were quite small, so that once the bags were full, it was time to come home. It was Nasta’s way of controlling how many sweets and treats their children had without confiscating half of their sweets when they got home as Harry refused to allow him to do so. It would upset his children greatly if he did so and he would not let his own mate hurt or upset his children over something so trivial as Halloween sweets. So they stuck to the little treat bags as a compromise.

He made it to the living room to find all of his children gathered around Max, who was handing out their Halloween themed treat bags. If a smiling ghost that looked like a cuddly toy could be classed as Halloween-esque.

 

“Mummy, am I scary?” His little Lai asked sweetly, the three year old holding tiny, orange arms out so that Harry could see the costume properly.

 

Harry looked at the fat, padded pumpkin costume and he bit his lip. “Yes love, you look absolutely terrifying.” He lied. Lai looked utterly adorable and if he knew it wouldn’t upset his three year old baby, he’d be on his knees cooing to his snuggly little pumpkin.

 

“You’ve made all of my children look ridiculous.” Draco huffed.

 

Harry gave him a glare. “They all picked out their own costumes.” Harry reminded him.

 

“A pumpkin?” Draco scowled. “How is a pumpkin scary? Or an ordinary witch? I don’t understand this Muggle tradition.”

 

“Then don’t judge it.” Harry told him. “Just keep an eye on them all and let Nasta lead them around.”

 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come, Mummy?” Braiden asked him, dressed as a caricature werewolf. He looked like an overly fluffy puppy.

 

“I’m sure, love. You go and enjoy yourselves.” He said with a sad smile.

 

“Is it because you’re having another baby?” Tegan asked him, brushing clumps of the ratty grey wig she was wearing from her eyes, clutching her Muggle broomstick tightly in a little fist.

 

“No, sweetheart. I’m only two months pregnant. It’s because your Nana and Granddad Potter died today and I like to think about them.”

 

“Oh, should we stay and think about them too?” Regan asked him.

 

“No, they’d want you to go out and have lots of fun, especially your Granddad James.” Harry said with a smile. “So you make sure you get as many sweeties as you can and have as much fun as you can and then you can tell me all about it when you come home.”

 

“Are you sure you don’t want me, or any of us, to stay home with you?” Nasta asked him quietly.

 

“I’d much rather you be with our babies, we have fourteen of them now, and you’re taking out eleven of them, you need to keep them safe. I’ll be fine, you know that I can protect myself, especially after Max’s self-defence lessons. I’ll be very safe here. I just want to spend some time alone to reflect on everything and to look through old pictures, that’s all.”

 

“Be careful, especially with this little one.” Nasta said, laying his hand over his gently rounded belly.

 

Harry smiled. “You know I will. You lot go and have fun and leave me to my thoughts.”

 

“Alright, Diletto. Happy anniversary.” Blaise told him.

 

Harry smiled. “Happy anniversary, Blaise. We’ll celebrate properly tomorrow.”

 

“We always do.” Blaise said lecherously.

 

Harry rolled his eyes and hugged his children. He didn’t want to let go of his Leolin or his tiny Xabe, who was almost two years old, but he knew that he had to. He had three little one’s upstairs asleep, his eleven month old twins, Mace and Evie and his six month old Mollie. They were too young to go trick or treating and Harry thought that Xabie was too, but he was so excited that he couldn’t sleep, so Harry had dug out one of the old costumes he had in the attic, dusted it off and dressed his little baby in the caricature vampire costume that had been one of his older brothers.

 

“Muma, bag!” Xabie toddled to him and thrust his bag up at him, looking adorable in his cape, his nest of hair slicked back with what looked like shoe polish, but was actually Draco’s hair goop, twin lines of red dribbled down to his chin from both corners of his mouth in a bad imitation of blood.

 

Harry smiled. “Yes, you need it to get your sweeties, baby.” Harry told him.

 

“We’ll take care of him, don’t worry.” Max assured him as he scooped Xabiere up and planted a big kiss on his cheek, getting a little baby giggle for it.

 

“Make sure that you do, and don’t let any of the others wander off!” Harry said worriedly. “And keep an eye on the time, I don’t want them out past seven O’clock!”

 

“We know, Caru.” Nasta said with a loving smile. “Leave it to us, you just relax and have a quiet evening.”

 

Harry nodded as he hugged his children tightly, making sure not to damage or knock off their costumes or smudge their painted faces. As it was, Lai still managed to smear Harry’s cheek orange from the dabs of ‘pumpkin orange’ paint that covered his little Lai’s entire face. They’d even managed to find orange lipstick and eye shadow to complete the costume.

Draco took out a handkerchief and wiped Harry’s face clean for him. Harry kissed him and then Blaise ushered the kids out into the twilight, they had a bit of a walk to get to their nearest neighbour, but beyond that was a whole neighbourhood that would be teeming with little ghosts, witches, werewolves, vampires and zombies, all carting around bags of sweets.

Harry had bought bags of sweets and the finest Halloween chocolates money could buy. Their house had become known as the best house in the area to come for Halloween and they’d had a steady stream of kids with bags and adorable grins knocking on their door. Draco was efficient at opening the door, complimenting the costumes and handing out the sweets. Max ripped open the door wearing the most grotesque mask he could find that year and screaming into the children’s faces and sending most of them into hysterics before he pulled up his mask with a laugh and handing them small, pre-made bags of sweets, chocolate eyeballs and gummy severed fingers that they kept in a bowl by the door. Blaise, Nasta and he were somewhere in between, they weren’t as stiff or boring as Draco but they weren’t as fanatical or fun loving as Max.

Harry would never forget the Halloween last year, when Xabiere was just eight months old and Max had stayed home with him because he was heavily pregnant and not able to stay home on his own, just in case he started nesting, and Max had dressed up as an insane, cannibalistic hobo and he had spent the night opening the door and pretending that he was eating the baby in his arms. He’d even ruined a perfectly good bodysuit by ripping it, covering it with fake blood and layering it over a red tee-shirt so that it looked like Xabiere’s belly was open and bleeding. The fake blood had been smeared all around Max’s lips and mouth and stuck to the scruffy beard he’d spent three weeks growing in for his costume. They’d had several kids run away from their house screaming.

He was only two months pregnant this year and he was due a scan soon. He hadn’t wanted to fall pregnant again so quickly. He hadn’t wanted sex at all since his last pregnancy and he was still plagued with nightmares and though he no longer blamed himself, or the remaining stress of the attack he’d suffered just a year before his twins had been born, he still hadn’t recovered from the loss of his two babies just six months ago.

He’d only taken three months to recover before his breeding season had started back up and on his very first heat period, he’d fallen pregnant. Something that he desperately hadn’t wanted, but couldn’t control. He and his mates hadn’t had sex since the heat period and that couldn’t really be counted as none of them could really remember much from the red hazed ten days.

He still had his dark days, they all did. Days where one of them just couldn’t bring themselves to crawl out of bed as they remembered their little Cassie and their sweet Jamie. It had only been six months since he had gone into premature labour and he’d been held down as Healers had removed his triplets. Jaime had been born dead. Their little boy hadn’t been strong enough to even survive the labour. Cassie had died in his arms just several hours later. They had been expecting their tiny Mollie to follow her brother and sister, but she hadn’t. She’d clung onto life and she’d fought for every breath that she took, but she was still alive the next morning and she had gotten stronger by the day.

Harry went up the stairs to his bedroom and checked in on her. She was sleeping peacefully, a stuffed duckling clutched in a tiny hand that was thrown over her head. He tucked his little miracle back in to her cot and kissed her soft cheek. It had been a hard, very difficult couple of years for all of them. He just hoped now that, after the attack, the horror and guilt that followed, then the premature labour and the death of two of his triplets, they had a nice, calm year where nothing bad or horrific happened. These last few years had been the worst and he couldn’t take any more bad news.

He put a hand to his pregnant belly and sat on the bed before he pulled out his photo album from the bedside table. His mates never bitched at him for keeping it in the bedside cabinet when they only had two of them between five men and he loved them for that. He liked having this album close to him.

He flipped through the school photos of his parents, their just graduated days, then their wedding photos and his baby photos. He had a lot more of them now thanks to Remus.

His gorge rose, as it always did, with the thought that they’d been killed on exactly this day. He swallowed painfully and breathed through the urge to vomit. It had been twenty-two years since they’d been killed and there wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t reminded that they were dead. If it wasn’t his children asking where his Mummy and Daddy were, it was just seeing his mates with their parents. Sometimes it was just his own thoughts about them and the night they died.  

He smiled sadly at the pictures that smiled and waved up at him from the pages. He sighed and closed the album and put it back in the bedside table. His children would be back soon and little Mollie ‘Momo’ would want a bottle soon.

He sighed again and sat himself up, wiping his eyes and smiling as he realised that one of his mates had left a box of tissues out for him to use. He loved all four of those men to pieces.

He went down the stairs and boiled the kettle, getting his Mother’s cup down from the very top cupboard where his children had no hope of reaching it. He’d stopped using it every day when Braiden and his quintuplets had first started finding their feet. Draco had been right of course, he would have been devastated if it had been broken and it was inevitable that it would be broken if he continued to use it with their house rapidly filling up with children who were crawling, toddling, walking, running and playing. He only used it now on Halloween, his special little moment using the blue china tea cup that his Mother had not only touched, but had used herself.

He made up a bottle for Mollie and set out fifteen mugs on the counter. He got a large saucepan out, filled it with milk and set that to boiling on the hob as he sipped at his tea. The doorbell rang a couple of times and he opened the door, each time pretending to be terrified out of his wits by the collection of very fake, sometimes cute looking costumes on the other side of the door before giving them a little bag of treats and waving them away.

He fed his tiny Mollie and rocked her back to sleep, thankful, as he was every single day since her birth, that she was still alive and with him. It didn’t diminish the pain he felt at losing two of his triplets, but somehow, it helped knowing that one of them had lived. He would have been much worse if he’d lost all three of them, he knew that, because he’d been forced to get up, carry on and care for his newborn daughter despite the pain of losing her brother and sister.

He gave her a big kiss and settled her back into her cot before he went back down the stairs and into the kitchen, laughing to himself as he saw the milk boiling over. Max was going to kill him.

He carefully poured the milk into the mugs and added cocoa powder, mixed it all together and allowed it to cool.

He added whipped cream, marshmallows and chocolate shavings to the hot chocolates and drank his own. He was just tipping the lone plain hot chocolate into a bottle for Xabiere when the front door opened and he could almost feel the aura of excitement and happiness coming from his chattering children.

He went to the kitchen door and cleared his throat, several babies looked up at him, squealed and rushed to embrace him. It was this more than anything that healed his hurting heart. The innocent, unconditional and adoring love of his children.

 

“Mummy, look at all my sweeties!” Braiden said excitedly, pushing his bulging treat bag under Harry’s nose.

 

He had several other babies doing the same thing within minutes.

 

“I hope you aren’t planning on eating all of those sweets yourself.” He said in a mock stern voice. “Now come on, I have hot chocolate waiting for all of you.”

 

“With marshmallows!” Tegan said, her face lighting up.

 

“And cream?” Calix asked hopping up and down.

 

“And chocolate too!” Taren spun around in a circle.

 

Harry laughed at their excited antics.

 

“Yes yes. I’ve made it with the works. Come on, let’s get you warmed up.”

 

“Have you made me one too, Mummy?” Max mock lisped to him, crawling to him on his knees.

 

Harry rolled his eyes and kissed Max’s forehead. He was put out to realise that Max was not that much shorter than he was on his knees.

 

“Yes I made you big kids one too. Come on before they go cold and these kids wear holes in the carpet.”

 

Harry handed out the mugs of hot chocolate and took a drifting Xabe from Blaise so that his mate could drink his own hot chocolate and he watched as his nearly two year old little boy suckled slowly on the bottle of the very rare hot chocolate treat.

 

“The three munchkins alright?” Max asked, cream all around his mouth and on his nose. All the kids were giggling at him and trying to tell him where the cream was, but he was deliberately missing it and teasing his children by telling them that he thought they were telling lies.

 

“Fine, Mollie had her bottle, she didn’t drink it all, but she drank most of it. Mace and Evie haven’t woken up.”

 

“Our Macie hasn’t woken up? It’s not like that greedy guzzler not to suckle down as much as he can.”

 

“I think it’s just cold and he’s happy. He drank a _lot_ just before he went to bed, I’ve changed him twice already.”

 

“I’ll go and check on them.” Draco offered as he put his used mug into the sink.

 

Harry took a moment to look around and smile as Blaise had enough of Max’s teasing and licked the cream off of their lover’s face, kissing him until Max’s laughter turned deeper and he pulled Blaise onto his lap to kiss him properly to the noisy disgust of their children.

 

“Ewww! Daddy Max!” Regan grimaced with a shriek. “Stop it!”

 

“Why is Dada Max eating Dada Bwaise?” Lai asked confusedly.

 

“He’s got cream all over his face, so he’s tasty at the moment.” Blaise growled deeply as he pulled back from Max’s face.

 

“Calm yourselves.” Nasta told them. “We need to get these toe-rags into bed.”

 

Harry chuckled and looked down at the sleeping Xabiere. The twenty month old boy was fast asleep in his arms, Harry’s rocking and his gentle fingers stroking over his back and through his hair had lulled him straight to sleep.

 

“I got mine to sleep alright.” Harry laughed.

 

“You got the easy one.” Max huffed as he indicated the excited, painted up, costumed rabble that were exchanging sweets they didn’t want or like with siblings. “Why do we get these ones, we’ve had them all night. It’s your turn, I claim dibs on the three upstairs!”

 

“Stop putting dibs on the kids.” Harry told him.

 

“You got the easy ones.” Max pouted.

 

“I’m easy, Daddy!” Ave said loudly.

 

“No! Do not say that.” Max told her. “Those are the last words any Father wants to hear. Ever.”

 

“I don’t know, I think the words, ‘Dad, I’m pregnant’ would be worse.” Harry said and then he grinned as his three mates all recoiled and made noises to block out his words. He laughed.

 

“Alright, what is taking so long?” Draco told them. “Kids, upstairs and get into bed, your treat bags will still be here in the morning.”

 

“Can you wash my face, Daddy?” Lai asked sleepily, rubbing half lidded eyes and smearing the orange paint everywhere.

 

“Of course, come on, love.”

 

Draco picked Lai up and carried the baby pumpkin to the bathroom. Harry watched them go and shook his head.

 

“Come on, Daddy Draco is right. Wash your faces and get into your warm pyjamas and into bed.” Nasta told them.

 

Harry followed the rabble up the stairs and he went into the nursery, where Mace was sat up in his cot, blinking sleep from his eyes and whining hungrily.

Harry sighed and he put Xabiere down gently and picked Mace up before he could start full out crying.

 

“Mama.” Mace murmured.

 

“Are you hungry, baby?”

 

“Bockle.”

 

“Yes, I’m getting you a bottle now, love.”

 

Harry carried the eleven month old down the stairs and found Draco making a bottle ready.

 

“I told you he’d wake up soon.” Draco said with a smile.

 

“Yes, you did.” Harry kissed Draco and took the bottle that Draco had made. “Is our little Lai in bed?”

 

“Yes, didn’t want to take that damn costume off, of course. But that adorable child of ours is fast asleep. This little child of ours needs to be in bed too. It’s far too cold down here.”

 

Harry nodded as he watched Mace suckle fast and furiously. It took half the time it usually took for any of their other babies to have their bottle before Harry had Mace fed, burped and back into his cot, right next to his twin.

The house was silent and Harry smiled as he settled into bed. He was the first, so he claimed the middle, and the best part, of the bed for himself.

 

“Look at you, Lord Muck.” Max laughed as he came into their bedroom and started undressing. “Lording it up in the bed without us.”

 

“Only for a minute before you get yourselves in here.”

 

“What’s the matter?” Nasta asked as he, Draco and Blaise came in after settling the excited older kids down.

 

“Lord Muck over there.” Max laughed, pointing to a cosy Harry who was cuddled up in bed, the covers tucked under his chin until just his head was poking out of the top.

 

Harry grinned happily and pulled out a hand to give his mates a small wave. Blaise snorted, Draco rolled his eyes and Nasta chuckled and went to the bathroom.

Max jumped onto the bed hard and jolted Harry a foot from his original position. He scrambled across the bed quickly and beat Max back to the middle spot in the bed and grinned cheekily at his mate who groaned and flumped himself onto the bed next to him.

 

“Fine, you have the middle spot. The smallest person shouldn’t get the best place! The biggest should.” He whined.

 

Harry laughed and snuggled into his warmth. “Stop complaining.” Harry told him as Draco came to spoon his back.

Nasta came back into the room and he settled a glass of water onto the bedside table for Max, who always needed a drink or two during the night.

 

“Cheers.” Max rumbled as Blaise slipped in behind him and snuggled in. Harry smiled as hands stroked and caressed his arms.

 

“Happy Halloween.” Nasta said with a sigh. “Another one come and gone, another week of forcibly brushing every little millimetre of tiny baby teeth.”

 

Harry laughed and turned over to face Draco and behind him, Nasta.

 

“It’ll be alright. They think fruit are sweets remember, this is a treat they only get a couple of times a year. It’s only really Halloween and Easter as we don’t buy them sweets or chocolate for their birthdays or for Christmas and we don’t let anyone else give them sweets as presents. Twice a year isn’t a bad record at all. Tegan doesn’t even like sweets, bless her heart.”

 

Everything fell silent, there was a lot rustling around, a bit of shifting and a lot of listening to Mollie snuffling in her sleep. Max fell asleep first, he was still recovering from his most recent chest infection caused by his job and it was obvious from his slight wheezing, but he was fine after the week and a half of sleeping and having their children ‘helping’ him. Eva and Ave had even been his personal nurses and had fed him his potions (under Nasta’s obsessive supervision) and helped him to drink his tea. They had also not allowed him to put so much as a hand out from under the blankets. He’d made Harry promise that he’d never let them be his nurses ever again.

Harry snuggled in and he fell asleep to leave Nasta to watch over them for a little while longer. Nasta made sure that Max was breathing steadily and he made sure that all the baby monitors were switched on and that he could hear their tiny Mollie breathing. Once he was assured that every member of his family was safe and sound and fast asleep and that there was nothing amiss in their home, only then did he allow himself to settle down enough to sleep.

He hated Halloween, it was his least favourite holiday and not just because of the mass of sweets and chocolate his kids and his mates were eating, but because it served to upset Harry so very much. He’d seen the used tissues in the waste bin at their bedside and he knew that Harry had been crying. He hated it, but there was nothing that he could do, because nothing could bring back the dead.

He sighed heavily and threw an arm over Draco and touched Harry, pushing a hand under his pyjamas. He rubbed softly at the skin he found and cupped his hand around the small bump of Harry’s pregnant belly.

It was hard knowing that they’d lost two babies, it was so painful that sometimes when he thought too hard about Jaime and Cassie he found himself unable to breathe. He admitted that having Mollie helped. All of their other children helped too, because they didn’t really understand what was happening and they still needed looking after and it prevented them from dwelling too long on their lost babies.

He knew Harry hadn’t wanted to be pregnant again so soon, they hadn’t had sex since before Harry had gone into premature labour and they hadn’t had sex since either, as he didn’t count the heat period that had taken away their inhibitions and had forced them together. They had conceived a baby and Nasta hoped that this new baby helped to take the pain away from losing their Jamie and Cassie. He knew that it wouldn’t take it all away and he knew that they’d never, ever forget their lost little ones, but he really did hope that the new baby helped, even if it was just by exhausting them so that they didn’t have the time to think.

He sighed and rolled himself tighter into Draco and laid a kiss on his pale neck as he relaxed his fingers against Harry’s bump. This had been a hell of a couple of years that they’d gone through, he seriously hoped that things calmed down and that nothing else went wrong for them. He didn’t know how long he could control himself and stop himself from tearing someone’s face off otherwise and he didn’t want to endanger his family that badly. Not ever.

Nasta soon fell asleep, despite his racing, troubled thoughts, but exhaustion soon won out. He needed to find a way to let out his stresses and frustrations, otherwise he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to keep himself from cracking. He needed one hell of a release and he needed it very soon.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Halloween, lovelies! I hope you’re all enjoying the holiday, whether you celebrate it or not, I hope you enjoy this chapter.  
> Rise of the Drackens is next on my update list and I’ll be posting that in just a few days. Five of them in fact, as soon as my work shifts are over for the week. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed this Halloween chapter, I’ll see you soon,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	43. Insight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> June 22nd 2012
> 
> Nasta – 52 years  
> Max – 45 years  
> Blaise – 32 years  
> Draco – 32 years  
> Harry – 31 years  
> Braiden – 14 years  
> Quintuplets – 14 years  
> Eva and Ave – 13 years  
> Taren – 12 years  
> Lai – 11 years  
> Xabiere – 9 years  
> Mace and Evie – 9 years  
> Mollie – 9 years  
> Quadruplets – 8 years  
> Serra and Senna – 6 years  
> Lian – 4 years  
> Triplets (Fee, Neave and Luce) – 3 years  
> Loren – 2 years  
> Cyneric and Kallan – 21 months  
> Harry is pregnant with Sully.
> 
> \-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Insight

 

Harry wanted to bang his head against the cupboard door as he heard Max open the front door and immediately behind him was the sound of eight Hogwarts students arguing the toss with one another.

 

“Alright! Calm down, get your trunks upstairs and I’ll get you a late dinner. Be quiet as well! The little ones are all in bed.” He heard Max say before his huge mate came into the kitchen and pulled Harry right into his arms, being careful of the baby growing inside him, and into a passionate kiss that last for several minutes.

 

“It couldn’t have been that bad.” Harry laughed as he gave Max’s hair a gentle tug when he finally had to come up for air.

 

“They were arguing as they got off the train and they didn’t stop all the way home. I thought Blaise was going to jump out of the car.”

 

“What are they arguing about?” Draco asked as he came in carrying a pouting little four year old.

 

“Mummy!” Said little four year old called out, reaching desperately for him, bright green eyes staring wide and beseechingly at him, like looking into a mirror.

 

“You should be in bed, Lian.” Harry chastised without heat as he pulled the little body to settle on his bump.

 

“Wanta see Baidy.”

 

“Braiden’s upstairs putting his trunk away. I’m sure he’s missed you too.”

 

“Of course I did.” Braiden said as he walked into the room with a smile, taking Lian from Harry and hugging his four year old sibling tightly. “I bought you some sweets from Honeydukes too, but shh, no telling Daddy Nasta.”

 

Harry shook his head and turned back to finishing the late meal before Max picked him up and shoved him into a chair and immediately took over. Harry was going to shout at him and perhaps curse him into the next room, but when he stood up he just felt tired, so he let it go with a sigh and pressed a hand to his bump.

 

“You look tired, Mum.” Braiden said with a frown.

 

“Your new sibling kept me awake for half the night and your Daddy Max’s snoring kept me awake for the other half.” Harry said with a teasing smile.

 

Braiden laughed. “You should take a nap.”

 

“Mama napped with me!” Lian nodded with a grin.

 

Harry grinned. “A very refreshing two hours snuggled up with all my younger children, at least until Luce gave me a nice knee to the ribs and woke me right up.”

 

Braiden pulled him into a hug and Harry hugged his little boy tightly, lamenting that he wasn’t really his little boy anymore. They were almost the same height, half an inch in it, if that, and Harry was dreading the day that Braiden grew taller than him.

Of course Farren took that moment to stride into the kitchen and Harry wanted to cry as it seemed his boy had grown another three inches since he’d last seen him at Christmas. He was fourteen and a half years old and he looked like he was sixteen, if or when he grew facial hair, he could have easily passed for even older, seventeen or even eighteen and Harry just wanted to throw his arms up and beg for it to stop, he just wanted to freeze time to stop Farren from growing anymore, but that was terribly unfair to Farren, so he bit his tongue and smiled softly at his second born son.

Yet as that towering hulk of a boy pulled him into a hug and looked at him with all the love a fourteen year old could have for his Mother, Harry was relieved to see that it was still his little boy in that almost unrecognisable body, Farren had to be five foot nine already.

Farren laid a hand over his belly and he laughed happily as a baby within kicked his hand and he eagerly told his siblings about it.

 

“That means the baby doesn’t like you!” Regan said as he bounced into the room, already in his pyjamas.

 

“Does not!” Farren denied as he took a swat at his brother.

 

“Don’t you hit him!” Tegan hissed as she came into the kitchen, a scowl on her pretty face.

 

“I didn’t hit him!” Farren denied, rolling his eyes.

 

“Stop it and sit down.” Draco said as he helped Max dish up the late dinner.

 

“Where are the others?” Calix asked. “They can’t all be in bed; Leolin would have come to see us at least, even if he was tired! And I can’t see Lai or Xabie going to bed early either.”

 

“They’re in the upstairs game room with your Dad Nasta.” Harry said. “They’ll be down here for dinner as soon as they’re called.”

 

“I’ll go and get them!” Taren said excitedly.

 

“I swear he’s crossed with a jack rabbit.” Max said as he watched Taren race out of the room. “We can’t even blame it on the excitement of going to Hogwarts for the first time or Christmas. It’s summer!”

 

“He’s been like it all year!” Farren complained as he slumped into a chair. “It’s like having a waist high puppy that’s stuck on fast forward. I didn’t even know he was there sometimes and then he started talking at a mile a minute and he scared the life out of me! I actually jumped into a suit of armour the other week. I was never that annoying as a first year!”

 

Harry hid a smile because he knew damn well that Farren _had_ been that annoying as a first year, all of the quintuplets in Hogwarts had pestered Braiden throughout the year, but his caring little Hufflepuff hadn’t said a word against them as he took care of them, showed them around and did everything he could to help them, even when they’d been homesick.

Leolin burst into the kitchen with a happy grin on his face and he threw himself at his brothers and lone sister who he had shared a sac with. Farren laughed and stood up to join the group hug, picking both Calix and Leolin up in one arm and Tegan in the other.

 

“Hey! What about me!” Regan demanded.

 

Max turned around and quickly had him up in a back breaking hug.

 

“Dad!” Regan complained, but Max just dug his fingers in and started tickling him and Regan started laughing uproariously.

 

Nasta came darting in and he deflated when he saw what the ruckus was. He shook his head.

 

“Daddy Nas!” His oldest identical twin, Eva, said with a grin on her face, throwing skinny arms around Nasta’s neck, her curly brown hair getting into both of their faces as she had yanked her ponytail out soon after arriving home.

 

“Hello sweetheart, how were the last few months of term?”

 

“Exhausting!” Braiden complained. “I’m starting my O.W.Ls next year! I didn’t even have a break in the last week of term.”

 

“I did!” The twins said together and then laughed.

 

“You’re only second years.” Braiden said with a small scowl. “They give the younger years a break.”

 

It had been only an hour or so since Harry had seen his younger children when they’d gone up to the play room with Nasta, but they still clobbered him with hugs and wet, sticky kisses and pressed little ears against his bump as they bounced into the kitchen.

 

“Right, sit down you lot.” Max called out as he turned with two plates in his hands.

 

As usual when he was pregnant, Harry got his plate first along with Braiden, who sat next to him chatting endlessly about how much summer homework he’d been given.

 

“Tell Mum how you and Becca were snogging on the train!” Calix cut in with a devilish grin, poking a sharp elbow into Braiden’s ribs.

 

Braiden went a bright scarlet and Harry could almost imagine the steam coming out of his ears.

 

“Leave your brother alone, Calix.” Harry warned him seriously. “He’s doing nothing wrong and it’s sweet that he’s going to miss his girlfriend over the summer.”

 

Braiden went an even deeper red and buried his face in his hands as the table laughed at him.

 

“Farren has a boyfriend.” Taren piped up and everyone stopped and looked at Farren who was glaring at Taren.

 

“I do not!” He denied furiously. “He caught me with one of my friends, all we were doing was exchanging sweets and Taren thought we were holding hands.” Farren’s blue-green eyes rolled, but he sent Taren a poisonous look.

  

“What’s boyfriend?” Leolin asked softly and immediately he had Braiden, Tegan, Regan, Farren and Calix all trying to explain to him what a boyfriend was.

 

“Right, enough!” Nasta called out. “You’re confusing him more and it’s no wonder! He can’t hear a word you’re saying.”

 

The kids fell silent and looked chastened but Leolin’s little mouth was pouted in confusion.

 

“Remember we talked about girlfriends?” Harry prompted softly.

 

Leolin nodded. “A girl that you hold hands with and kiss and be nice with.”

 

“A boyfriend is the same, only instead of a girl; the person you love is a boy.”

 

“Farren’s a boy.” Leolin pointed out in confusion.

 

“Leolin sweetheart, I’m a boy.” Harry said softly. “I love and care for four other boys.”

 

“No boy, you’re a Mummy.” Leolin said stubbornly.

 

“We’ve been through this before, Leolin. I’m both. I’m a Mummy and I’m a boy.”

 

“No.” Leolin denied, shaking his head.

 

“Leolin, Mummy is a boy.” Braiden said softly and encouragingly. “Everyone knows that boys can have babies, even you can when you’re older. A lot older.” Braiden added with a touch of brotherly protectiveness.

 

Harry smiled, but Leolin was stubborn as hell when he wanted to be and he refused to believe that Harry was a boy and not just a ‘mummy’, he sighed, sometimes dealing with his Faerie son was so difficult and getting him to realise things that others took for granted was a war in on itself.

 

“Mum, when will I get my letter?” Lai asked excitedly. “You said when the older ones came home and they’re home now.”

 

Harry chuckled. “Not for another few weeks Lai, love. You know that the Hogwarts letters aren’t released until the beginning of August, after my birthday.”

 

“Mummy’s going to be thirty-one!” Evie giggled.

 

“Mummy feels like a hundred and thirty-one with all you little toe rags running around.” Harry teased.

 

“Are you going to spoil Mum this year?” Braiden questioned his Fathers’ with a narrow eyed look as if daring them to say no.

 

“We spoil him every year.” Max answered with a grin that made Harry blush. “Sometimes we don’t even wait for his birthday.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “Enough of that, I’m trying to eat and Ric and Kallan are going to need feeding soon.”

 

“Is Uncle Dain going to come and see them?” Regan asked.

 

“He’s not allowed to touch them!” Tegan decreed with a sniff.

 

Harry’s little Slytherin daughter was getting more and more demanding the older she grew, she was going to be a hell of a handful for anyone who decided they wanted to pursue her. She’d probably vanish all of their limbs with a disinterested sniff. She definitely took more after Draco than anyone else, she liked emulating him and copying everything he did, from the sneer, to the superior sniffs. She had Draco’s mannerisms down to a fine art.

 

“Tegan sweetheart, Ric and Lanie deserve to know Dain as much as the rest of you, I know you don’t like his way of speaking and it comes across as strange, but you have to let him and Kailen see them. They like meeting their new family members.”

 

Tegan pouted. “Can’t he come and see them after the new baby is born? Then he can see them all together and then he doesn’t have to come back.”

 

Harry kicked Draco’s shin as his blond mate was biting his lip hard to keep either from laughing or from shooting a proud look at their oldest daughter.

 

“Is the new baby a girl, Mum?” Farren asked him, cutting up a piece of chicken with a look of distaste.

 

“No love, we were going to tell you after dinner, but we found out that the baby’s a boy.”

 

Tegan groaned. “You have to stop having boys, Mum! There are too many boys!”

 

“I dare say if you were the only girl we had we’d still feel outnumbered.” Blaise muttered, which set his part of the table laughing. Harry gave him a stern glare.

 

“This makes the twentieth boy!” Tegan carried on, having not heard her Father. “I only have eight sisters!”

 

“You know I can’t control that, Tegan, but you love your brothers don’t you?” Harry asked a bit uncertainly.

 

“Well of course I do, Mum, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a few more sisters at my back.” Tegan nodded with a smile.

 

Her face pinched and she rubbed her belly softly and Harry was immediately on alert.

 

“Is there something wrong with your chicken, Farren?” Max asked concernedly.

 

Harry looked across at his second son and noticed the look of distaste was back.

 

“He’s been eating salad all year!” His younger twin, Ave, blabbed. “Calix said he doesn’t touch anything that will make him fat.”

 

“I’m not fat!” Farren yelled, his anger just immediately there as he shouted at his siblings, standing up suddenly, which jolted the whole table and sent cups tumbling. He went bright red and rushed from the room.

 

“I’ve got him.” Max said as he stood and followed after Farren, leaving Harry able to turn back to Tegan.

 

He watched her and she grimaced every now and then as she ate and got a funny look on her face. After dinner he pulled her aside as all the other kids rushed off to get ready for bed or in the case of his teenage children, some relaxation and some family time before bed.

 

“Are you alright, Tegan?” Harry asked her seriously.

 

“I think so. I’ve just got these strange pains really low in my belly, it started this morning at breakfast and I got them on the train too. It’s not…they don’t really hurt per se, but they are uncomfortable. Was it something I ate, Mum?”

 

Harry thought hard and then he sighed. “Do me a favour sweetheart, go and check your underwear for spots of blood, I think you may be having your first period.”

 

Tegan’s eyes widened and she looked terrified. Harry smiled reassuringly.

 

“There’s nothing to worry about, we’ve been through this before, ever since you were eleven and going off to Hogwarts for the first time, it’s not dirty, it isn’t wrong, it’s not something you should hide away like a secret. It’s completely normal and natural and we don’t care, sweetheart. Your Dads’ and I know what to do and we’ll talk you through it.”

 

“Don’t tell them yet! Just in case it isn’t, please, Mum.”

 

“Of course, it’ll be just between me and you until we’re sure. Go and check love.”

 

“Will you be here?” Tegan asked and it was one of the only times that Harry had seen her really unsure of herself. It reminded him that she was just fourteen and not as confident as she liked to portray to the world.

 

“Of course love, I’ll be right here and I won’t breathe a word, especially not to your brothers.” Harry gave her a wink.

 

She chuckled nervously and gave him a hug as best as she could while Harry was pregnant. Harry held her back but when she pulled away, she had that grimace on her face again.

 

“Go on, I’ll get you a pain reliever for when you come back, do you want tea, squash or hot chocolate?”

 

“Hot chocolate, please.” Tegan said and she dashed away as Harry boiled the kettle and set to making everyone drinks while he waited with baited breath to hear if his little girl was finally starting her assent into womanhood. He felt teary.

 

It was agonising waiting for Tegan to come back from the bathroom just down the hallway, shooing his mates away with the trays of drinks, managing and wrangling his other kids who were here, there and everywhere.

He felt like a wreck when Tegan finally came back into the kitchen. She just looked at him and he didn’t need the small nod that she gave him to know that he’d been right.

He opened his arms and Tegan ran to him and buried in deep, she at least was still short enough for Harry to easily tuck the top of her head under his chin, at least for the moment as it seemed she was going to be all long, graceful limbs like Nasta’s sister, Angharad, had been before her untimely death.

 

“Do you remember what we taught you in our talks?” Harry asked as he stroked her back comfortingly.

 

“Yes, I put one of the…the liners in.” Tegan said, stumbling a little over the embarrassment of talking about something so personal and intimate.

 

“I’m your Mother, Tegan; I carried you in here like I am with your new brother.” Harry said sternly, taking her hand and pressing it against his solid stomach. “I changed and fed you half a hundred times every single day of your life. I cleaned away your spit up, your snot, your drool; I’ve dried your tears and moped up your vomit. I’ve held you as you’ve cried, when you’ve been ill, through nightmares and I’ve wiped up the blood from your cuts. This is no different to any of those times and I will help and guide you through this too. Just because I’m a man doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing. You’re my daughter and I’ll walk over hot coals, nail beds and thick, shards of glass for you. My little girl starting her transition into becoming a woman isn’t going to bother me in the slightest, now come and get this pain reliever into you because I don’t like the thought of you hurting and we can go and cuddle up on the settee and laugh at whatever stupidity your Dad Max decides to do next.”

 

Tegan laughed and took her hot chocolate from Harry and sipped at it. She escorted Harry into the living room and kicked Calix off of one settee so she and Harry could sit down.

 

“I was wondering where you two went, having some girly time were you?” Max teased. A very happy looking Farren was playing with Regan and Braiden.

 

Harry smiled to see it.

 

“How dare you!” Tegan said shrilly. “It’s no wonder our Leo is so confused with comments like that! You leave Mum alone, he’s nothing but kind and helpful, you’re always so mean!”

 

Max looked a little stunned, but Harry shook his head and pulled Tegan to rest against him, of course Leolin crawled up with them and Tegan played with her brother’s long, jet black hair with long, slim fingers.

They stayed where they were for an hour, watching Max mess around with Eva and Ave as Nasta put a sleeping Lian to bed and the five of them heard all the stories there was to hear about their children’s last few months in Hogwarts and what they were going to do with their freedom over the summer. Already they were planning a mass Quidditch game in the back garden.

Harry sent them all to bed at ten o’clock and he promised Tegan that he’d tell her Dads’ about her period for her, she was too embarrassed to do it herself, Slytherin or not.

 

“What was Tegan’s outburst about?” Draco asked worriedly as soon as Harry eased himself back down the stairs and into his chair.

 

“Our little girl is having a few mood swings, she started her period today during breakfast without realising. She started bleeding at dinner.” Harry told them proudly.

 

“She’s too young!” Blaise hissed angrily.

 

Harry sighed and rolled his eyes. If he wanted to hold on tightly to his children, then he had nothing on an overprotective Blaise.

 

“She’s not too young.” Nasta told him firmly. “I was wondering when this would happen, I’ve been waiting for it to happen these last two years. Did you give her a pain potion; I saw her wincing through dinner.”

 

Harry nodded. “I put it in her hot chocolate; she doesn’t want the other kids to know just yet. Make sure we add sanitary pads to the monthly shopping list though, Max. I don’t want her to feel like she has to ask or beg for them, I want them to be there waiting for her exactly when she needs them.”

 

“Perhaps this is the time that we move her into her own room.” Max said with a thoughtful look. “One of the rooms with an en suite so that she can put her pads in there and have the privacy she needs without anyone bursting in and finding them. That way she can feel like she’s dealing with it herself in privacy and have the space to clean herself up.”

 

Harry smiled at that. “I like that idea; I’ll run it past her tomorrow. Now what was wrong with Farren?”

 

Max sighed unhappily. “He’s noticing the height difference between himself and the rest of his year mates. He’s taller than some of the sixth years and he’s self-conscious about it. He’s been cutting out protein, carbohydrates; anything he thinks will make him grow, so he’s mainly been eating salad, which has affected his concentration in class because he’s not getting the energy that he needs from food.”

 

“Please tell me you spoke to him?” Blaise asked. “I don’t like that he’s made a connection between eating food and growing.”

 

“I told him it’s genetic and he can’t change it, that if he ate salad for the rest of his life, he’d still grow to the height he’s supposed to be, but he’ll make himself very sick in the process. I sat him down and I showed him all of my old childhood pictures where I towered over Caesar and his Aunts. His brothers and sisters calling him fat doesn’t help, he’s developing an eating disorder without even knowing it.”

 

“I don’t like this.” Harry said nervously, biting his lip.

 

“While he’s home we can monitor what he’s eating.” Max assured him.

 

“I’ll get in touch with Minerva, as the Headmistress she’ll be able to inform the other teachers and the nurse so that they can monitor him and his eating habits.” Nasta added.

 

“I’ll speak to the other kids.” Draco nodded. “If them calling him names isn’t helping then we have to make them stop or its going to get worse. Ave called him fat during dinner even, which is what set him off in the first place, it needs to be dealt with.”

 

Harry nodded and he sat back and sighed. Why did his children have to bring so much drama back home with them? He cupped his belly and wondered if it was too late to give this one back. He was having a crisis of being overwhelmed by his children again.  

 

“I know that look, what’s wrong?” Blaise asked as he moved to sit next to him.

 

“Just feeling a little overwhelmed again now that the kids are all home.”

 

“Don’t worry love; we’re getting rid of another one in September.” Max told him cheerfully.

 

Harry laughed in surprise. “Yeah, but we’re getting a newborn baby for getting rid of Lai, who I would like to point out is one of our sweetest, most helpful, most well behaved children.”

 

Max’s eyes widened comically. “No!” He made a show of falling to his knees and leaning back to look at the ceiling. “Why?! Why must you do this! Take any child, but not our little Lay-lay! Not for a newborn who’s going to keep us awake all night!”

 

“I think having so many children made you worse.” Draco said tonelessly as he sipped on his tea.

 

Harry laughed and he shook his head. “I can’t believe Lai is going to Hogwarts in September. Our tenth child, where has the time gone?! They were all babies toddling around my feet what seems like days ago.”

 

“And now they’re all going off to Hogwarts, getting girlfriends and boyfriends apparently, was I the only one to notice how… _defensive_ Farren seemed over the whole thing, especially if he and his friend were just exchanging sweets?” Blaise asked consideringly.

 

Harry nodded. “He was glaring at Taren, properly glaring at him for bringing it up, you’d think we would go ballistic with him for being gay or bi curious from the way he was acting.”

 

That made his mates laugh. “We can hardly go ballistic with him for that.” Max said with a grin. “I’d have to spank myself for being so naughty with you four otherwise and I enjoy both being with you four and being spanked, so maybe I should be punished for it.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “You’re impossible sometimes.”

 

“If he’s just exploring his sexuality, that’s fine. I can see why he’d want to keep it to himself if he’s still unsure of his sexuality himself, but it’s hardly something to blow up over.” Draco said as he sipped on his tea.

 

“I don’t like that he’s being teased over it either.” Blaise said. “You’d think our own kids would be more accepting, what with having five male parents.”

 

Harry rested back and rubbed his hands over his belly. Around every single corner there was more and more drama in his family.

 

“These kids are going to make my hair turn grey.” Max groaned. “If it’s not Farren thinking he’s abnormal and fat, it’s Tegan having bitchy mood swings thanks to her new period. We’re in trouble now.”

 

Harry sighed and patted his belly. Another boy, thankfully just the one after he’d given birth to his Faerie twins twenty-one months ago.

Dain and Kailen hadn’t believed him when he’d owled them and told them that his newborn baby boys were identical Faeries. They still hadn’t believed him when they’d come to see them both, but almost two years on and Cyneric and Kallan were doing wonderfully well, though it was still very difficult to tell them apart as they, like Leolin had at their age, had next to no personalities at all and they were completely identical. They even had the same coloured wings, which again matched Leolin’s. Apparently all of his and Nasta’s Faerie children would have the same coloured wings because those colours were theirs.

 

“They’re getting older now and they’re coming into themselves.” Nasta said with a proud smile. “We’re raising wonderful, unique individuals and it was always going to be difficult through the teenaged years. All of those hormones and new emotions and the different urges are going to mess with their heads and their temperaments. We just need to keep our calm, not react and get them all through it.”

 

Harry nodded his understanding. He knew this, it was just difficult to realise that his children were growing up. He didn’t like the unavoidable proof that they were becoming teenagers and the knowledge that they would soon be adults.

Even now Braiden was getting older, getting closer and closer to that fateful sixteen years old. It had seemed like a life time when looking at his newborn Dracken, now it was just a year and two months away. He knew that it wouldn’t be long after that that Braiden would be gone from his home forever. If he was a submissive, then they could hold back his meetings, at least until he had graduated, but if he was a dominant Dracken, then he could be gone and mated as early as the very next submissive meeting called. It made him feel sick to think about it.

 

“Stop torturing yourself.” Draco told him. “You can’t stop them ageing and you shouldn’t want to.”

 

“I don’t want to, I just can’t help thinking that it’s all come around so soon. Where did the time go?”

 

“We spent it raising them all well.” Nasta said. “They’re good kids and they’ll make better adults. We’ve done almost all that we can now, Cariad. A few years and it’ll be up to them, not us. They’re getting older, they’re coming into themselves and one day they’ll take all that we’ve taught them and they’ll go out into the wide world and they’ll live their own lives. We’ve done a good job in raising those kids and I’m damn proud of all of them. If we can raise all of our children to be like them, then we’d have succeeded as parents.”

 

Harry sighed and picked himself up, moving to go and sit himself on Nasta’s lap. His oldest mate smiled at him and gave him a kiss before tucking him into his body and resting a hand on his belly.

 

“Everything will work out, love. You just need to have the courage to let them go.”

 

“It’s just hard.” Harry said softly, sleepily.

 

“I know. It’s hard for us too. But we can’t imprison them here with us for the rest of their lives. They’re going to be flying the nest, they’re going to be scattered to the winds and to the four corners of the Earth, but if we’ve done our jobs right, then they’ll always come home to visit.”

 

“They might even bring grandchildren with them.” Max said with a grin and Harry laughed.

 

“Come on, let’s get to bed. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. We have the kids back under our roof for the first time tonight, the younger kids are going to be as excited as hell tomorrow.”

 

Harry agreed and Nasta carried him to their bedroom and placed him on the bed. Harry stripped himself and rolled under the covers. It was almost July and he found it too hot to sleep in their bed with four large men surrounding him, especially while pregnant, so he’d taken to sleeping naked, not that his mates minded, particularly not Max, who made sure he was the next one in the bed so that he could slip in behind him, holding Harry’s naked body to his chest.

 

“I love the summer.” He declared with a naughty grin.

 

“Piss off and go to sleep.” Harry muttered as he snuggled into the pillow more.

 

Blaise chuckled. “That told you.” He said to Max as he slipped an arm under Harry’s head and pulled him in tighter to himself. Max followed, keeping himself pressed up against Harry.

 

“I’m four months pregnant, I’m so not in the mood for sex right now. I just want to sleep. And I want a grapefruit.”

 

“Right now?” Draco asked.

 

“Yes, go and get me one.” Harry said.

 

“Do we even have a grapefruit?”

 

“It depends if Harry wants a pink or a white one.” Max said.

 

“Pink.” Harry said with a happy smile.

 

“We have pink grapefruits.” Max said to Draco, who left their bedroom to go to the kitchen to get Harry a grapefruit.

 

“You are so spoilt.” Max told him with a grin.

 

Harry chuckled. “I know. Thank you for loving me as much as you do.”

 

“If you’d wanted a white grapefruit I would have gotten dressed again and gone to get you one.” Nasta told him. “I would have grumbled and complained, but I still would have happily done it, because I love you.”

 

Harry smiled into his pillow. “I love you too, but right now I need that grapefruit and I need sleep.”

 

“Here’s the grapefruit.” Draco told him as he handed over a plate of grapefruit segments that had even been peeled, so all Harry had to do was eat them.

 

He sat up, scoffed the segments quickly and then snuggled back up into his men, his mind taken far away from his growing children and their teenaged problems as he snuggled up tightly with his lovers and he fell to sleep very easily. His problems would still be there when he woke up tomorrow…unfortunately his children wouldn’t stop growing or ageing and he would never stop worrying or fretting about it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I managed to get this one, which I have been working on for months now, finally finished. So I am happy that it’s finally done. I have another one almost finished, so we will be having a Christmas Scaled Bits update this year too, but like this one, it’s still on the short side, I can’t work miracles.
> 
> I hope you’ve all enjoyed this little chapter,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	44. A Frozen Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> December 2014
> 
> Nasta - 54  
> Max - 48  
> Blaise - 35  
> Draco - 34  
> Harry - 34
> 
> Braiden - 17  
> Quintuplets – 16  
> Eva and Ave – 15  
> Taren - 14  
> Lai - 14  
> Xabiere - 12  
> Mace and Evie - 12  
> Mollie - 11  
> Quadruplets - 10  
> Serra and Senna - 8  
> Lian - 7  
> Phoebe, Neave and Luce – 6  
> Loren – 5  
> Cyneric and Kallan – 4  
> Sully – 2  
> Lia, Nia and Vanna – 18 months  
> Sextuplets – 4 months

A Frozen Moment

 

Max was at home all alone today. Or as alone as he ever got these days with thirty-seven children to keep track of. Luckily for him his four other lovers, Nasta, Draco, Blaise and Harry, had taken most of the kids off of his hands to go Christmas shopping for several last minute purchases that had been either forgotten or very hard to find, so he wasn’t left all on his own with all thirty-seven children, thank Merlin.

It was just five days until Christmas day and their house was a perpetual hive of activity as overexcited kids rushed to and fro, scoffing the Christmas cookies he’d been baking for the last week, rattling the several presents they kept under the tree for decoration to try and guess what was inside, and just generally creating havoc and chaos as the big day loomed ever closer and their excitement only grew.

Max had to dodge three kids just to make it safely to the kitchen to pick up the six bottles he’d made in preparation ten minutes ago. He still couldn’t believe that Harry had conceived and given birth to sextuplets, but their six were doing wonderfully well. Even tiny little Emerus was coming on in spades, his biological son, who had been so tiny and struggling a little after his birth as he didn’t like waking up for his feeds. Little Rus was still the smallest of the clutch, a concept that had really been quite foreign to him in regards to his own natural children, but he was getting used to it and now that Emerus was gaining some weight, which made the Healers happy, which in turn made them happy, Max was less worried about his youngest son. No, it was Harry that they were all extremely worried about.

Harry had given birth over four months ago now and sometimes the remaining pain in his body woke him up and had him retching. The Healers had told him that he’d done some very serious damage to his body by carrying six babies, even if they had thought they were only having five. Again the topic of selective reduction had been brought up during that pregnancy, but Harry had stubbornly refused to even consider it this time around. In his mind he had already carried quintuplets before, so he could do so again despite being almost ten years older than he had been with his first set of quintuplets. Max wondered if Harry might have accepted the selective reduction if he’d known that he was actually carrying six babies and had known beforehand the damage and pain it would have caused him afterwards, even if all six babies had survived and were doing well, Harry himself was not. Max sighed and run his thick fingers through his overlong, very slightly curly, hair. Probably not. As long as the babies were alright, Harry wouldn’t have cared about himself or how much pain the pregnancy and birth cause him.

Max picked up the fussing four month old, grinning as a shock of white blond hair was revealed from under the hood of the little Christmas jumper the baby was wearing. Of course Draco’s son, Errai, would have been the one to start fussing for attention first.

 

“Need a hand, Dad?” Braiden asked.

 

Their seventeen year old son was tall, slim and beautiful. Max was so proud as he watched Braiden easily scoop up a hungry baby and present a bottle teat to a tiny, pouted mouth. He was going to be an amazing parent one of these days and though that thought made him a little sad, as Braiden was likely to fly the nest in the next coming months, he was also so very, very proud of the man his first son had become.

 

“Slow down, Eiren!” Braiden laughed to his baby brother as the little boy sucked incredibly strongly on the bottle. “You’d think we never fed him!”

 

Max grinned as he burped Errai and sat him on the floor. As he watched, the baby lilted to the one side and flumped over.

 

“Don’t do that, Dad! Mum would have a fit.” Braiden told him off, which made Max smile harder as Braiden crouched down and shifted Errai onto his belly, where he was more comfortable, all the while keeping a good hold on Eiren and not once stopping the milk flow.

 

“You’re going to make a brilliant Mother hen, just like your Mum and Dad Nasta.” Max teased and Braiden snorted.

 

“I find that a massive compliment.” Braiden told him.

 

“Daddy! Daddy! Put DVD on!”

 

Max groaned and rubbed his head as he looked at the wide eyed collection of his six year old triplets.

 

“Please, not again. Daddy can’t take hearing those songs anymore! Can’t we have a break for one day?” He begged. “Don’t you want to watch something else?”

 

“No!” The three girls replied, one even stamping her foot.

 

“But it’s giving Daddy a brain haemorrhage, you don’t want Daddy to have a brain haemorrhage, do you?”

 

The three girls nodded and giggled. “Put Frozen on!” Neave demanded.

 

“But if Daddy hears ‘Let It Go’ once more he’s going to be really sick!” Max pleaded.

 

“Don’t care!” Phoebe declared. “We want to watch it!”

 

Knowing that he’d lost this argument, he grudgingly moved towards the TV and popped in the Frozen disk that had been thoroughly abused since they’d gotten it in April. It had been played every day since, sometimes upwards of four or five times. He could quote it by heart and when it had still been new, he had even sung along to the songs to entertain his children, but now eight months later, he was fucking sick of it.

All it took was the music to start playing, before the film had even properly started and several cheers rang out and there was a rush from the room next door as other children heard and recognised the coming on.

 

“Frozen’s on!” Lian shouted up the stairs and suddenly there was an almost stampede as the remaining little kids who were left at home with him charged from all over the house to clamour in front of the TV for Frozen.

 

“I want to be a Queen like Elsa!” A five year old Loren declared as he bounced on the settee, a half-eaten cookie in his hands. Max dreaded to think how many he’d eaten. He had been distracted with feeding the sextuplets and he’d forgotten to police the cookies.

 

“You can’t be a Queen, you’re a boy!” Luce told him.

 

“I can be a Queen if I want to be!” Loren said back fiercely.

 

“You’d have to be a King.” Lian told him.

 

“I don’t want to be a King, I want to be a _Queen_!” Loren snapped.

 

“You can’t!”

 

“Oi, knock it off!” Max said. “If Loren wants to be a Queen, then he can be a Queen. Just like you can be anything you want to be.”

 

“Can I have a dress, Daddy?” Loren asked excitedly. “If I’m a Queen, I need a dress.”

 

Max grinned at the thought and he left the living room and went to the coat cupboard in the hallway, there he transfigured an old spare robe into a blue dress in an imitation of the ‘Elsa’ dress. He measured it and made sure that it would fit Loren, before he took it back into the living room and handed it to his son who screeched and rushed to strip himself down to pull it on.

This was much better than suffering through Frozen for the seven millionth time. He made sure to take photos, just in case Loren got bored and took the dress off before the others got back.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

“Rewind it again!” Lian demanded and Max grit his teeth and tried to smile as he rewound the DVD just so his kids could watch the ‘Let It Go’ scene for the tenth time in a row. He either had a brain tumour, or he was dangerously close to having an aneurism.

 

Loren, still in his blue Elsa dress, was perched on his lap, singing along happily to the song, doing all the hand movements. But Merlin, how many times did his kids want to watch this one film? When would they get bored of it and move on to something else?

They’d had to buy eight Elsa dolls, eight Hans and Kristoff dolls, even Olaf and Sven models, six Elsa and Anna headband sets and countless other paraphernalia for various Christmas lists this year. They’d even bought Frozen wrapping paper and gift bags to put it all in. The world had gone Frozen mad.

 

“Let it go! Let it go! I am one with the wind and sky-eye-eye!” Max could feel the headache forming as several kids sang along badly to the song and he had to put Loren to the side of him and go into the kitchen, just to get away for a minute.

 

He got himself a glass of water and a headache reliever for the pressure he could feel forming in his skull. Once this Frozen phase was over he would take immense pleasure in snapping that disk into a hundred tiny pieces and stamping on them.

 

“Oh, not that song again!”

 

Max turned to see Mace slumping into the kitchen. His twelve year old son was getting to look more and more like his Grandfather as he got older and it immediately cheered him up.

 

“Must they watch it a million times a day, Dad? I’m sick of it.”

 

“Why do you think I’m hiding in my own kitchen?” He said with a grin.

 

“I thought it was to make more cookies, seeing as there are none left.”

 

Startled, Max looked to his airtight containers and found every single one of them open and empty…Nasta was going to fucking slaughter him.

 

“Any chance you want to help me bake?” Max asked.

 

“Anything that keeps me from having to watch Frozen again and I’ll happily do it.” Mace said empathetically.

 

So Max went digging in his fridge and cupboards and brought out everything he needed to make up his mountain of Christmas cookies again. This time he was going to ward the damn containers to stop sneaky little hands from nicking all of his biscuits.

At least he had competent help this time as he and Mace knocked out the dough quickly and easily enough.

 

“Daddy! Ellette bumped her head!”

 

Max dropped the rolling pin and ran to the living room to find a group of worried kids gathered around a crying four month old. He cursed himself for a fool for leaving his four month old sextuplets alone, only Ellette and Eurei were mobile at the moment, the other four were not, but he still shouldn’t have left them alone.

He picked up his little girl and cooed over her, kissing her little bumped head and trying to blot out Frozen playing in the background.

She’d crawled into the coffee table, nothing more serious than a small red bump covered her tiny forehead, but all the same he cocked her onto his hip and secured the other five into the playpen area.

 

“Do not take them out.” He warned the other children as he hefted Ellette higher up his side.

 

He took her back out into the kitchen to see Mace punching out the dough with Christmas cutters and lining them up on several baking trays.

 

“Did you remember to grease the trays?”

 

“Yep. The first batch is already in the oven.” Mace said proudly.

 

“Well done, you’re going to be a proper little chef one day.” Max praised easily as he set Ellette into a highchair and scattered a handful of raisins onto the tray for her to pick at.

 

“Did you finish the Christmas cakes?” Mace asked curiously.

 

“Yep, all eight of them.” Max said with a weary sigh. “I finished decorating them last night and I’ve put them all away safe, where sticky little hands can’t reach them.”

 

The front door banged several times and Max cleaned his hands as quickly as he could and moved to the door, only for Calix to swing down the bannister and open the door excitedly. He accepted the parcel and signed for it and bounced into the kitchen to hand the parcel to him.

Max checked the name on it before he put it up high, out of reach of little hands. It was for Harry, which meant that it was more than likely another Christmas present for someone.

Max shooed Mace away after Frozen had gone off and it was safe to travel into the living room once more, but he stayed and meticulously decorated his cookies yet again, fighting off little hands that wanted yet more treats.

Harry came home first, Mollie, Evie, Farren and Sasha with him and a two year old Sully sleeping in his arms.

 

“Pass him here, you were sick this morning. Why didn’t you use his pushchair?”

 

“I did.” Harry said affronted. “I folded it down in the passageway.”

 

Max nodded, much happier to hear that as he tucked Sully into a convenient pram that was up against the kitchen wall and he sat Harry down and made him tea.

 

“Why is Ellie out here? Where are the other five?” Harry asked.

 

“They’re in the playpen in the living room. She is out here because she bumped her head into the coffee table.”

 

“Oh baby, did you bump your little head?” Harry cooed as he moved her fringe out of the way and kissed the barely there red patch.

 

“Did you get everything you needed?” Max asked, even as he watched Farren run a finger down Sasha’s nose before bending to kiss him. They were getting increasingly more affectionate and it broke his heart. He wasn’t as optimistic as Harry was, he couldn’t see how their relationship would be strong enough to last.

 

“Yes. I got everything off of the list. I just hope the others had as much luck as I did. I did not play nice or gentlemanly. I had to claw at some woman’s eyes to get four pairs of the Frozen pyjamas and I got Farren to reach over some woman’s head to snatch the last Princess Anna and Olaf bedspread in blue. Thankfully she was too short to reach it, so while she was on the tips of her toes trying to reach it, Farren snatched it from over her head, she was furious, though when she spun around to bump her nose against his massive chest, she backed right off. She had no way of knowing that our loved up boy wouldn’t hurt a fly. Still, I hope the others are as ruthless, because if my babies don’t get what they want for Christmas, I’ll make sure they suffer.”

 

“I’m glad I never went out!” Max laughed. “Though I had to sit and rewind Frozen a dozen times.”

 

Harry winced. “I’m so glad that I did go out.”

 

Draco came home not too long after Harry, his hands filled with carrier bags.

 

“Did you get everything?” Harry demanded before he had even sat down.

 

Draco nodded. “I almost got punched in the face for taking the last Elsa doll on the shelf, but yes. I got everything.”

 

“Even the colouring books?” Harry asked. “The stores I went to were all sold out.”

 

“I got twelve of them because I sent Taren crawling under the stock counter and had him going through all the boxes until he’d found them. The damn shop was holding them back so they could create panic shopping when they announced a ‘new shipment’ of the colouring books in store in two days’ time. The place would have been mobbed.”

 

Harry grinned widely and he hugged Draco tightly. “I love you so much, Draco.”

 

Draco laughed. “Because I exploited our fourteen year old child and got everything off the list?”

 

Harry nodded seriously.

 

“How has our Lai been?” Draco asked worriedly.

 

“Still in bed. I think that cold might actually be a mild case of the flu.” Max said. “I’ve kept an ear out and the poor thing has been back and forth to the toilet several times.”

 

“Will Lai be better for Christmas?” Farren asked, perking up at the mention of his sick sibling.

 

“Christmas fever infects everyone, I’m sure even if Lai is still sick on Christmas day then it won’t upset that bubbly personality. You’ll see.”

 

Harry hoped that Max was right. He hated seeing any of his children sick, but his sweet little Lai had been down for a while now and though he knew it was likely just the onset of the flu that had been getting to his child, he had hated seeing his normally happy, bright and bubbly fourteen year old moping and shuffling around, vomiting every other day and sniffling with a bunged up nose and with red rimmed eyes. Max was on top of it though with perfectly timed Pepper-up potions and Harry hoped that they shifted whatever was ailing his little Lai before Christmas day arrived.

Nasta was home next with a gaggle of kids and he was grinning happily enough as he danced around all the excited kids all in scarves, hats and gloves.

 

“Did you pick up the Yorkshire puddings? I can’t believe that I actually forgot them when I did the food shop the other day.” Max asked almost desperately.

 

“Stop worrying, I got them.” Nasta assured him, bending over the kitchen island to plant a kiss smack on his lips.

 

“You’re freezing.” Max told him as he rushed to the kettle and set it to boiling as Draco helped the kids out of their thick coats and gloves.

 

“It is very cold outside. It’s snowing heavily now.”

 

Harry grinned as he remembered yesterday, where they had all swarmed the back garden, the six, four month olds all in brightly coloured snowsuits so they could see them clearly. They had made a dozen snowmen…most of them trying to imitate Olaf, they’d all made snow angels, two igloos and they’d had a massive snowball fight before they’d come inside to warm up with hot chocolate and, surprise surprise, yet another viewing of Frozen.

Max made everyone tea, before he finished off his last batch of cookies and cleaned up, before he started on making dinner. He was in his element now that he could focus purely on cooking and he was very happy. All they needed now was for Blaise to come home with Regan, Xabiere, Eva and Ave and Serra and Senna.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

When dinner time rolled around and Blaise and the kids still hadn’t come home, Harry started to get worried. He tried not to let it show, but every little noise from the other rooms and he turned to look at it, hoping that it was his mate and their six missing children coming home.

They were sitting through another session of Frozen and Harry was able to drown most of it out as he cuddled with Cyneric and Kallan on the settee. Both of his Faerie boys were asleep in one another’s arms on his right side, their tiny little feet pressed against his thigh.

 

“I’m going to go out and look for them.” Max said suddenly.

 

“You don’t even know where they are.” Draco hissed at him.

 

“It can’t hurt to just go out and check!” Max answered angrily.

 

“Stop arguing in the middle of the living room.” Harry told them both in the falsely calm way of his that stopped all of his mates short and made them duck for cover.

 

The distraction came in the form of Lai stumbling into the room, one hand on an unhappily gurgling belly that Harry could hear over the loud rendition of ‘Do you want to build a snowman?’ and a face as pale as the snow outside.

 

“What are you doing out of bed?” Nasta demanded as he stood up and picked their fourteen year old up gently, cradling Lai in his arms.

 

“I didn’t feel well, Daddy. I ran out of water, so I wanted to get some more.”

 

“I got it.” Max said as he left the room for the kitchen. Harry got the feeling that he just didn’t want to be in the same room as Frozen anymore. Then he had been watching it all day.

 

“Are you feeling better Lay-lay?” Loren asked. He was still wearing the Elsa dress that Max had made for him. They’d all shared a laugh over that as he danced around the room declaring that he was an ice Queen.

 

“Not really.” Lai answered weakly.

 

“The flu is nasty.” Max said as he came back into the room and handed Lai a glass of water. He shoved a massive hand over Lai’s tiny, pale forehead. He hummed thoughtfully. “You’re still a little warm, but you aren’t feverish, which is a good sign. It means the Pepper-ups are kicking in.”

 

Harry watched as Nasta cradled Lai as if their fourteen year old was still a baby. Lai didn’t complain once. In fact their fourteen year old looked far too queasy to so much as open an eye, let alone a mouth. He sighed. Lai was one of their sweetest, most well behaved children and would give anything to help someone else, likely the traits that had seen Lai sorted into Hufflepuff house with big brother Braiden, but seeing his baby so miserable and sick stabbed right through him, especially when Lai was usually so happy and energetic around this time of the year.

The floo in the other room flared up and Harry’s ears pricked for a sign of Blaise and their still missing kids, even though he knew Blaise had taken a car. To his surprise it was Blaise and the kids who came in through the living room door.

 

“Please tell me the car didn’t break down on you.” Max said.

 

“Worse.” Blaise said, looking very pale and shaken. “I hit a patch of black ice and crashed it into a lamppost.”

 

Harry leapt up and went sniffing his babies one by one, dragging whoever was closest to him into his arms until he was trying to hold all six of them together.

 

“We’re fine, Mum.” Regan said. “Dad took us straight to St Mungos even though we were all fine. He’s the one who broke his nose and is going to have black eyes for the next couple of days.”

 

It was Max who pulled Blaise into a comforting hug after hearing that piece of news, Nasta still having a lap full of Lai, but Max more than made up for it as he sat Blaise down and checked him over.

 

“I’ve seen a Healer, you aren’t going to find anything to help that they haven’t already done.” Blaise insisted. “Damn airbag is lethal! It almost took off my damn head. Why do Muggles use them?”

 

“If you hadn’t had the airbag, then your face would have hit the steering wheel.” Nasta told him seriously and Blaise winced harder.

 

“Are any of your necks or shoulders hurting?” Harry asked his children.

 

They all shook their heads. “We’re fine, Mummy.” Serra told him. “The Healers were all happy to let us go and the only one who got hurt was Daddy Blaise. We weren’t going very fast, we were on a corner.”

 

“Come and sit down.” Draco insisted as the gobsmacked kids all moved and shifted to allow their cold and shaken siblings to sit down on settees. It wasn’t every day that one of them were involved in an accident such as this.

 

“Oh, Re, you’re back. Thank god, Tegan’s been driving me mad.” Farren exclaimed happily as he came into the room with Sasha in tow. “What’s happened?” He asked as soon as he took a moment to take in the pale, worried faces and his Dad Max fussing over his Dad Blaise.

 

“They got into a car accident, Farren. That’s all.” Harry explained with more calm than he was currently feeling.

 

“Are you all, aright?” Sasha asked concernedly as it seemed Farren was frozen to the spot.

 

“Perfectly fine.” Ave said with a smile, her curly hair loose around her shoulders. “Daddy Blaise was hurt the worst, but he only had a broken nose, the Healers fixed it in minutes.”

 

“Tegan’s going to do her nut.” Mace groaned from where he was lounging on the floor.

 

“Let me call her.” Farren said.

 

Harry braced himself for the impact.

 

“Tegan!”

 

“What?” Came the muffled reply from further up in the house.

 

“Regan’s back! They’re so late because they got into a car accident!”

 

Harry smiled as he heard the faint groan from Regan behind him. Clattering on the stairs and Calix was the first one to come barrelling through the door, his face washed with fear and panic.

 

“Calm down, everyone’s just fine.” Harry assured him. “They hit a lamppost.”

 

“Did they get hurt?” Braiden asked as he darted in, Tegan and Leolin right behind him.

 

“No, no one is hurt. Your Dad Blaise will have black eyes for a few days, but that’s it.”

 

“Are you okay, Dad?” Leolin asked softly.

 

“I’m fine. Absolutely fine.” Blaise insisted. “I was the only one hurt and I was more worried about those lot.”

 

“So everyone’s fine?” Braiden reiterated.

 

“Absolutely fine.” Blaise said as he stood up from the settee. “We’re just hungry.” He said with a pleading look to Max, who laughed happily.

 

“I saved you all some dinner. Come on.”

 

Harry took a moment to breathe as he eased himself down from his feeling of panic. Five days before Christmas…he could have lost a mate and six babies five days before Christmas. Damn his heart couldn’t take this, he didn’t want to let go of any of his children and his hands ached to clench Braiden tighter to himself. His seventeen year old would be flying the nest soon. He just knew it.

 

“Mummy, put Frozen on again.” Loren begged him, his little dress still firmly on despite teasing from older brothers and sisters. Their five year old son didn’t care. He just didn’t care at all and he was adamant that he was going to be a Queen. Harry was bursting with pride for how strong his Loren was.

 

Harry groaned at the request and just like that everything was back to normal as he had several kids begging for Frozen to go back on from the beginning and his teenagers made a quick escape back upstairs to their rooms, or maybe even to the ‘teen’ lounge, Tegan holding on tight to Regan’s hand as she and Braiden escorted him upstairs. Lai was fast asleep on Nasta’s lap, being cuddled in an elevated position to help ease congestion and to help their little Lai breathe easier.

 

“That damn film is getting old, really fast.” Draco groaned. “Can’t we put something else on?”

 

Harry laughed. “Only if you suggest it.”

 

Draco looked from Harry to the massive horde of kids, chatting excitedly together, waiting for the film to start.

 

“I like my head where it is.” He said with a groan as he picked up a six year old Neave and sat her on his lap so she could watch Frozen again.

 

“I hope Blaise managed to get those shirts and those puzzles.” Harry mused out loud just before the film came on.

 

Draco looked at him and laughed quietly. “He better have or those black eyes will be the least of his problems.”

 

Harry turned to Draco and he grinned. Surrounded by his children and with Serra and Senna sat on one side of him and his still sleeping Faerie boys on the other side, he settled down to pretend to watch Frozen again, when in actuality, he was mentally running through everything that he still needed to do before Christmas Day.

It was a very long list and he was going to be very busy in these next few days now. He just hoped that the pain and sickness eased off, just for a few days, his hips hadn’t stopped aching since he was about three months pregnant and now four months after giving birth, it was starting to grate on him a little. Though he could have easily handled the pain, he could have ignored it and grit his teeth and just carried on his day to day in looking after his beautiful, wonderful children…if it wasn’t hand in hand with almost daily bouts of vomiting. The pain he could handle, it was the sickness that he couldn’t deal with. He sucked in a deep breath and he wished fervently that he started getting better now…how much longer could this carry on? And more importantly, how much more of it could he actually take? He sighed heavily and pushed it to the back of his mind. He’d worry about all of that now after Christmas, his children came first in everything. His lingering pain and sickness from his pregnancy and birth would have to wait.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Merry Christmas, lovelies! I hope you’ve all enjoyed this little slice of life for the guys and I hope that all of you with children can appreciate the subject matter as I have actually seen kids being told off for grabbing Frozen stuff off the shelf and begging for them or trying to put them into shopping trolleys. The worst is the Frozen celebration cake by far!  
> Of course I had to add just a touch of sombre melancholy with the crash that Blaise had. Accidents do happen, so please be careful, lovelies!
> 
> I’ll see you all soon, I’ll be updating the Black Heir in a week for you all, to celebrate the coming of the New Year, but until then,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	45. Big Brothers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Nicola, one of the Facebookers. Happy early birthday, lovelie!

 

Big Brothers

Early July - 2013

 

Farren grunted as he woke up, peering blearily at his alarm clock only to realise that it was four in the morning. Grunting some more, he rolled over and peered, just as blearily, at one of his little sisters.

 

“‘S too early.” He slurred at her.

 

“I had a bad dream, Farren.”

 

“Go to Mum and Dads’ room then.” He groaned as he burrowed back into his warm, cosy bed.

 

“The new babies are with Mummy, I don’t want to be waked up.”

 

Farren groaned and lifted the edge of his duvet, trying to ignore as a tiny body scrambled into the warmth and snuggled in tight to him. He rolled over and threw an arm around his baby sister and yawned into her blonde hair, frowning as he got some of it stuck in his mouth. He swiped it away and tried to get back to sleep.

This was the downside of being one of the oldest, the younger ones saw them as surrogate parents when their actual parents were indisposed or busy with the babies.

It took him forever to fall asleep again as he wasn’t used to sharing his bed with anyone, let alone a four year old who rolled around and jabbed at him with knobbly knees and bony elbows.

It seemed like he’d only been asleep for a minute before the body in his arms started wriggling. He gripped tighter and an automatic grumble worked its way out of his throat. He’d been growling a lot more lately as he came closer to his Dracken inheritance. A little girl giggled at him as his growl rumbled through her back.

 

“Farren!” She complained in a whine. “Let me go, it’s morning.”

 

“Damn it, Phoebe. Can’t you stay asleep for a little while longer?”

 

“No.” She pouted back at him. “I heard Mummy get up.”

 

Farren yawned wide enough to crack his jaw and he scrubbed at his eyes as Phoebe ran out of his bedroom, of course leaving his door wide open behind her. With a groan he sat up and worked at his shoulders and knees. It was just coming up to dawn if the pale tinge behind his curtains was any indicator.

Deciding that he wouldn’t wake up properly today unless he forced himself to, he pushed his bedroom door closed and changed into his running gear.

Padding in his socks down the hallway until he reached his brother’s room, he walked in and shook the nearest shoulder.

 

“Uh?” His brother grunted as he was forced from sleep.

 

“Wake up, Mace.”

 

“‘At you ‘ant?” Mace slurred sleepily.

 

“I’m going running in ten minutes.”

 

Mace shot up in the bed and actually looked at him. He grinned and leapt out of bed when he saw that Farren was actually in his running gear.

Farren smiled himself and walked out of Mace’s room so he could change in privacy and he made his way down the stairs and then down again before walking down the two hallways to get to the kitchen, where his Mum was feeding one of the newborn triplets. They were all girls too, like Phoebe and her sisters. His Mum had had three sets of triplets now, but only the one set, the first, had had a boy. His sister Mollie’s triplet brother, Jaime and triplet sister, Cassie hadn’t made it.

He didn’t remember much from that time, he’d only been five years old at the time, but what he could remember, he wanted to forget. His Mum and Dads’ had been so sad and so angry that he and his brothers and sisters had gone to stay with their Granddad Alexander for a while. Until their new baby sister, Mollie, had been allowed home from the hospital months after her birth. He remembered a few visits from his Dads’, they’d tried to be happy, but he had known that something was very wrong. His Mum hadn’t come at all during that time, he’d stayed at the hospital with Mollie as much as he could.

 

“I’d hoped that you’d gone back to bed.” His Mum said softly with a stern look to Phoebe, who was sat at the kitchen table with a beaker of milk.

 

“It’s alright, Mum. She had a nightmare, but now that I’m up, me and Mace are going running.”

 

“Be careful.” His Mum warned, as always.

 

“I’m fifteen, Mum!” He complained.

 

The grin that his Mum shot at him made an answering one form on his face despite the fact that he was trying to be serious and adult about this.

 

“You’re always going to be my baby.” His Mum said as he pulled him down to kiss his cheek.

 

Farren groaned and made a scene of it, but truthfully he enjoyed bonding with his Mum. A tiny little fist gripped at his tee shirt and Farren grinned at his newest baby sister.

 

“Hi there, Rosa. This one is Rosa, yeah?” He asked his Mum, who laughed in the way that made Farren feel like he’d swallowed Helium. Light and happy.

 

“Yeah. Anyone would think that they’re identical the way you kids act.”

 

Farren snorted. “I still can’t tell Cyneric and Kallan apart and they’re almost three.”

 

His Mum slapped his shoulder with absolutely no force behind it before looking over his shoulder.

 

“Morning, Mace love.”

 

“Morning, Mum!” Mace replied, sounding far too happy and alert at six in the morning. “Fee, what are you doing up?”

 

“I had a bad dream, Macie.” Phoebe replied. “Farren chased away the monsters though.”

 

His ten year old brother grinned at him. “I wondered why you were awake so willingly. It wasn’t willingly at all, was it?”

 

Farren snorted. “No. But either way, I’m awake now, so let’s go.”

 

“You boys be careful. Farren, you take care of Mace, you hear?”

 

“Loud and clear.” Farren saluted like his Dad Max did sometimes and that made his Mum grin again and shake his head in exasperation.

 

“Go on, just be back in time for breakfast.”

 

Farren pushed Mace out of the front door first and then followed, closing the door softly before leading Mace through his stretches and warmups. They started at a light jog before building up to flat out running. Mace was getting stronger and faster and soon enough, he was going to be stronger and faster than he was himself. He didn’t mind so much, he just wanted Mace to be the best that he could be and to be happy. Mace was very competitive and he did sports as a hobby. He played so many different sports that Farren was amazed that he kept his training and meet schedules in order and didn’t mix up dates and venues.

He kept himself fit because it was a good, constructive way to release pent up energy, and being as big as he was any loss of control or boost of excess energy could mean the difference between fun playing and breaking a brother’s arm. Plus it put him in good stead to find a decent submissive mate when he came into his Dracken inheritance in December. He didn’t do any sports competitively like Mace, so he didn’t much care that his little brother was going to be better or stronger than him one day, as long as Mace was happy.

He was very proud of Mace and the dedication he showed to all of his sports and he was always going to encourage his little brother to be his absolute best and he’d be there at every competition that Mace had, with the rest of their family, screaming himself hoarse in support of his brother.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Late November - 2018

 

He didn’t know how he’d gotten landed with this job, but he wasn’t happy with it. Xabiere stood in the school yard, ignoring the stares and the points from the parents of his baby siblings’ school. So he was here to pick up his baby brothers and sisters, it wasn’t as if the world was ending.

His Mum was heavily pregnant and was currently nesting as of last week and three of his Dads’ were in work after his Dad Max was called into an emergency that afternoon, leaving just his Dad Blaise at home to guard their Mother. This was the first time that he’d been allowed out of the house in two weeks after he was grounded for actually being suspended from Hogwarts.

His parents were so disappointed in him and he suspected that he’d even made his Mum cry, but he didn’t regret anything. No one touched his baby brother like that and got away with it.

His hand clenched as he thought back to that day two weeks ago when he’d walked around a corner and found his fourteen year old brother, Saeth, cowering against a wall, his arms clutching a death grip on several books, as a seventh year touched his face with his sweaty, grimy hands.

He’d lost it. He’d fucking lost it and after an incredibly strong banishing spell, funny enough the strongest one he’d ever produced, sent the vile Gryffindor into a wall, he’d leapt on him and started attacking him with his fists, beating his face to a pulp. An act that was made much easier considering he was a dominant Dracken and had come into his full inheritance several months before.

It was only when he heard Saeth crying for him to stop, that he actually took a deep breath and realised what he’d done. He’d breathed out heavily through his nose, clambered off the unconscious eighteen year old and took his baby brother into his arms.

Saeth was in tears of distress and clung to him as he sobbed his heart out into the front of his robes. It was then that Xabiere learnt that the piece of shit had been harassing and assaulting his brother, his fourteen year old baby brother, for months.

A Professor had found them and the Gryffindor had been taken immediately to the hospital wing and Xabiere and Saeth had gone straight to the Headmistress’ office. He’d had to listen to a spiel about how Ravenclaws were supposed to think first before acting and how he’d shamed his house, even as he’d lost fifty house points for his unacceptable behaviour.

The news that Saeth had been being harassed and assaulted for months had rocked their Headmistress and their parents had immediately been called. All five of them had flooed into the office after getting Nana Narcissa to babysit.

After explaining the situation, in which Saeth had clung to their heavily pregnant Mother like a limpet, Xabiere had been told that the loss of house points was not to be his only punishment and that detention wasn’t severe enough for what he’d done. He was to be suspended until the new term started after Christmas, almost two months away. The same punishment would be given to the Gryffindor who had molested Saeth. It was less than the vile bastard deserved, but Xabiere contented himself with the thought that soon everyone would know what that filth had done to Saeth and he grinned evilly as he just knew that Saeth’s quadruplet brothers would not let anyone, _anyone_ , hurt their youngest quad and Ceri and Ethan just happened to be Gryffindors and no one wanted to mess with Jason, the Slytherin of the quartet.

Xabiere grinned as he remembered coming home to find a very, very recently turned Mace, another Gryffindor, who’d only just come into his dominant Dracken inheritance a week ago. He remembered telling him what had happened, why he was suspended and the look on Mace’s face, the apoplectic rage as his whole head flushed red, almost purple, with anger and those massive fists clenched tight.

Mace had lost control of his Dracken attributes and he’d stomped around for the next hour with his claws flexing and his fangs bared, his dark green wings flexed to their fullest as his black and navy blue scales caught the light.

It had taken his Dads’ ages to calm Mace down enough to get him to actually think rationally and in that time Xabiere had told Mace’s twin, Evie, who was also home for a Dracken inheritance, about what had happened to Saeth. Needless to say his parents had not been impressed with him and he’d spent the rest of the day in his room while they tried to calm down the newly inherited Drackens who were stomping around in rage.

He grinned, more a baring of his teeth, as he thought of Mace and Evie, now back in Hogwarts and back in Gryffindor Tower…that piece of slime was going to regret ever touching baby Saeth…between himself, Evie, Saeth’s quadruplet brothers Ceri, Jason and Ethan and the hulking, rippling mountain of muscle that was Mace, that fucker was going to be kept utterly terrified and thoroughly miserable until he graduated in June. No one, absolutely no one, molested their sweet, studious Saeth and got away with it.

 

“Xabie!”

 

Xabiere grinned as six little four year olds burst out of the door of their Reception class. He hunched down and collected the six of them in his arms and head counted them, just to make sure that he wasn’t leaving any of them behind.

 

“Where’s Daddy?” Ellette asked him.

 

“Daddy had to go to work, so you got me instead.” He explained as he hefted Emerus, the smallest and often the sickliest of the sextuplets, onto his hip.

 

“Yay, Xabie!” Eiren, the oldest, cheered as he ran circles around him.

 

He laughed. “Come on, we need to pick up the girls from the next building over and then get Sully.” He explained as he walked down a narrow path to the next building that housed the slightly older children.

 

Lia, Nia and Nora were waiting with their teacher and the three girls screeched when they saw him.

 

“Xabe!” Nia called out excitedly as she rushed to clutch at his leg.

 

The three five year olds joined the five four year olds in their excited running around and Xabiere rolled his eyes and adjusted the sleepy Emerus on his hip.

 

“You’re making me dizzy.” He complained as he collected the girls’ school bags from their teacher, who was grinning at him. “Have they been good?” He asked.

 

“As gold.” The teacher told him with a chuckle. “Where is your Father?”

 

“Emergency at work. He had to make emergency arrangements, so I got stuck on picking these monsters up.”

 

The teacher nodded and Xabiere rounded up his little siblings and herded them around the corner of the building to pick up Sully, who was chatting excitedly to one of his friends.

 

“Come on, Sully!” He called out loudly.

 

Sully looked up and quickly said goodbye to his friend and the six year old ran up to him and hugged him around the waist.

 

“Where’s Daddy Max?”

 

“At work, squirt, now come on.”

 

Xabiere took them on the safest route, the one their Mum and Dads’ always took and at the corner where his path met up with the path from the Junior school, he met up with a nine year old Loren, the ten year old triplets and the almost eleven year old Lian.

 

“Xabiere, what are you doing here?” Loren asked him as he scooped up the giggling Errai to give him a hug.

 

“Dad Max got called into work.” He said. “So I got roped into picking you all up by Dad Blaise because he needs to stay at home in case Mum goes into labour.”

 

“Do you think Mum will miss my birthday?” Lian asked softly.

 

Xabiere grimaced. Their Mum had only just started nesting last week and Lian’s birthday was on the eleventh of December, in two weeks’ time. There was a high chance that their Mum was going to miss Lian’s eleventh birthday.

 

“You know that Mum will be there if he can, Lian.” He said evasively.

 

A sharp cry caught his attention and his head snapped around, his Dracken howling as he saw Eris on the floor with a scraped knee and grazed palms.

He put Emerus down and scooped up his four year old sister and squeezed her tight, using his thumbs to brush away her tears.

 

“Xabie, I want Mummy!” She cried out.

 

Xabiere sat her on his thigh and brought a tissue from his pocket and wiped the mucus from her nose, but he had no medical supplies, so he couldn’t fix up her grazes.

 

“Come on, love. Let’s get home. Lian, can you get Emerus?”

 

“Got him.” Lian, who looked so much like their Mum, replied happily as he scooped up Emerus and snuggled him into his neck.

 

Xabiere made sure that the four other sextuplets were following and he charged the older triplets with watching over the others as they came out of the school pathway and onto the street.

They’d all been taught the dangers of the road from incredibly young ages and it came as second nature to the sextuplets to hug the wall and to hold hands. Eiren and Eurei, the identical twins of the sextuplets, were holding hands at the front and Errai was holding hands with Ellette behind them. Xabiere grinned. He was so going to make his own children do the same when he had them. Hopefully it would be soon, his Dracken didn’t like being unmated and childless.

He could be called to a meeting any day now that he had come into his inheritance, thus far though, he hadn’t had a single meeting and he’d been turned since February, it was almost an entire year without any submissives.

Braiden was already happily mated to two Drackens and they had two babies, one had been born earlier that year and the other one was two years old. But that wasn’t the worst of it, Farren had found his perfect submissive mate and he had had a son in January last year and if that wasn’t bad enough, the identical twins, Eva and Ave, had had a baby each within weeks of one another last year and Eva had fallen pregnant with her second shortly after, she’d given birth earlier that year. Farren’s submissive was pregnant again and Ave was about to go into another heat period. He was surrounded by babies and yet he still had no mate.

Xabiere carried Eris in his arms down the several streets, passed the play park (ignoring the pleas for five minutes of play) and to the outskirts of the neighbourhood to their massive mansion house. It needed to be so big because there were so many of them living there, but he still remembered bringing his friends home, their faces, their awe as they looked up at his huge home which was normal for him. He’d lived there his whole life, he’d been born in the grounds, as his new little sibling would be soon now that their Mum was nesting.

He made sure all of his younger siblings were in the house and he sorted them all out with snacks and juice cartons before he sat Eris on the kitchen counter and got down the first aid kit.

 

“Let me see your hands, baby.” He said.

 

Eris sniffled and showed him her palms and Xabiere took an antibacterial wipe to her hands before kissing them better, which made Eris giggle.

He did the same to her knees, using just the one plaster on her left knee, which was a little more than a graze as she must have landed on a stone which had cut her properly instead of just grazing her.

 

“Thank you, Xabie.” Eris sniffed.

 

“That’s alright, Eris. You take your juice and go and play.”

 

Xabiere set her on the floor and handed her a carton of apple juice and he went and collapsed onto the settee, watching over the kids as they played on the floor. It would only be for an hour, he reminded himself. His Dad Nasta would be home soon, until then, he just had to be a good big brother and watch over them.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

3rd April - 2015

 

Life at home was always hectic. He was seventeen now and very close to finishing his final year at Hogwarts, but it was the Easter holidays and he was home for a week, just long enough to cram in revision on top of finishing his homework…or at least that’s what he would be doing if he didn’t have a two year old toddler cuddled on his lap.

 

“Sully, do you want to go and play?” He asked softly.

 

His little brother shook his head. “Nuh.”

 

“You know I’m trying to do my homework for school. It’s very important, I have my final exams this year.”

 

“No, Baidy.” Sully shook his head again and burrowed in tighter, little fists clenching harder.

 

Braiden sighed and wrapped an arm around Sully and tried to do his revision while Sully rocked on his lap, giggling. He didn’t get very far before he was distracted yet again.

 

“Sully, please.” He tried to copy the stern voice that their Mother used, but all it got him was a pout and an evil looking scowl.

 

“Nuh.”

 

Braiden gave up and decided that they both needed a break, so he stood up, still clutching Sully to his chest, he went out of his bedroom and down the hallway and down two flights of stairs to the family living room.

 

“You are supposed to be revising.” His Mum told him and then gave a hard look to Sully. “And you, are supposed to be napping.”

 

“Nuh, no nap Mama.”

 

“Even if you didn’t want a nap, you shouldn’t have disturbed your big brother. He has important work to do.”

 

“No!” Sully kicked out at their Mother and that was that as their Mother went stern and carried Sully out, back up the stairs and to Sully’s room to put him in a time out.

 

Braiden sighed and sat down for a few minutes to watch over the little ones playing. He smiled as the sextuplets wriggled and squirmed like worms all over the floor. They were seven months old now and they were just finding out that they could move themselves around on their hands and knees. Though Eiren and Ellette had been crawling for a few months already and they were undoubtedly the best at it, but with all six of them moving around the floor it looked like a baby dance class or something. It made him laugh.

They were crawling absolutely everywhere and he felt like he didn’t have enough eyes to watch them, but his Dracken purred at them and their progress. His very, very clever little baby siblings.

 

“Ah!”

 

Braiden’s attention was diverted to the four year old identical Faerie babies and he was up in a flash as he saw the one reach out a hand over his shoulder to smack at the other. He intercepted the hand before it could land, but the Faerie babe looked at him through his huge gold eyes before he threw himself backwards and screamed.

 

“What in the world is going on in here?” His Dad Max demanded, until he saw Braiden trying to restrain one of the Faerie twins.

 

“Kallan tried to hit Cyneric and now he’s having a tantrum because I stopped him.” Braiden told his Dad.

 

Max groaned and slotted his wooden spoon into the pocket of his ancient dark green apron…honestly he’d had that damn apron for longer than he’d been born.

 

“Pass him here, love.”

 

“You have enough to do in the kitchen, Dad. I’ve got him, promise.”

 

“You shouldn’t have to deal with his tantrum.”

 

“I don’t mind.” Braiden sighed, even as he held fast to his four year old brother, who was more on the level of Sully, at two.

 

“I hate that they’ve started the hitting phase.” His Dad sighed. “Regan!”

 

It took a minute before Regan came into the room. “God, what happened?” He asked as he saw Kallan, red in the face and thrashing around.

 

“He tried to hit Cyneric and now he’s having an all-out Faerie tantrum. Can you watch over these babies while I go and sort him out? Dad’s busy cooking.” Braiden explained.

 

“Sure.” Regan said as he got down onto the floor to play with the little sextuplets and Braiden hefted Kallan more securely into his arms and he took him out the back garden. All the Faeries seemed to calm down quicker when they were outside.

 

Braiden sat down on the grass, thankful that it wasn’t raining and though it was windy, it wasn’t too cold. He clamped Kallan in his arms, on his lap as he hummed gently, rocking backwards and forwards as he let Kallan scream himself out.

 

“Bay.” Kallan sniffled some time later.

 

“I know, Kallan. I love you.” He murmured softly. “Just calm yourself down. I know you’re frustrated. I know you’re trying to do and say things that you just can’t, but it’s okay, Kallan. I understand, we all understand and we’ll be patient and we’ll still love you.”

 

Kallan turned in his arms and snuggled in. “Bay.” He repeated softly and Braiden ducked his head to press his chin to the top of Kallan’s head, his thick, nest of black hair tickling his nose.

 

“Come on you, let’s get you back inside and you can have some juice.”

 

Braiden pushed himself up with Kallan over his shoulder and he stopped in the kitchen long enough to grab a carton of Ribena blackcurrant, Kallan’s favourite, and took him back into the living room, where his Mum had taken charge of the babies once again.

 

“There you are, Regan told me what happened. Is he alright?”

 

“He’s fine now. He just needed a moment with nature.”

 

His Mum laughed at that, light and happy, and it warmed him inside as his Mum pushed the straw into the carton and helped Kallan drink, taking over so completely that Braiden barely noticed as he relaxed automatically.

 

“You’ve had enough of a break now, go and get back to your revision.” His Mum said with a grin and a wink.

 

Braiden laughed and nodded. “Okay, I might be able to have some peace now.”

 

He did as he’d been told and he went back up to his bedroom to sort out his books and get back onto his revision schedule, it wasn’t surprising that thanks to Sully he couldn’t remember anything that he’d been studying for the hour in which he’d had Sully on his lap. He sighed…little pests, but still, he couldn’t help but love them all.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

1st January - 2020

 

Mace did not know how this had happened. He sent a hopeful look to the door, but his two baby sisters were blocking his only exit…unless he wanted to jump out of the window.

 

“More tea, Lady Mace?” Ellette asked him in her poshest voice that she’d learnt from their Nana Narcissa.

 

He held his plastic cup out with a grunt and Ellette filled it with water from the plastic teapot. She poured it perfectly.

 

“How was your morning, Lady Eris?” She asked her sextuplet sister.

 

“Very well, thank you, Lady Ellette. I spent the morning in my gardens, attending to my flowers.”

 

Mace snorted, because he knew that Eris had done no such thing, but he had to applaud their imaginations at least.

 

“Something to say, Lady Mace? I’ll have you know that my flowering shrubs are worthy of a blue ribbon this year!” Eris told him snobbishly.

 

Mace had to laugh. He couldn’t help himself. Here he was, seventeen years old, six feet nine inches tall and ripped with muscle, sat on a tiny plastic chair, hunched over, knees up to his chin, a ridiculous hat on his head, sipping water from a plastic teacup and he believed that Eris thinking that she had a prize winning garden was what was funny.

 

“I like your garden, Lady Eris.” Ellette said sympathetically, patting her sister’s hand. “Lady Mace is just jealous because she doesn’t have a proper lady garden to tend to.”

 

Mace snorted the water into his cup up his nose and he coughed harshly to clear his lungs of water. He started laughing and he couldn’t stop.

 

“Mace! You’re ruining our tea party!” Eris scolded him.

 

“Sorry. Sorry.” He wheezed out as he tried to get himself back under control. His baby sisters didn’t know how close to the truth they’d come, just in a different way. It had been a couple of months since he’d last had sex with anyone and he was missing it. Though the less his five year old sisters knew about that, the better.

 

“Behave! Like a proper lady!” Eris told him with a frown.

 

Mace nodded and shuffled himself in the tiny chair at the tiny table and took a sip of his cup of water.

 

“How is your Husband, Lady Ellette?”

 

Mace choked again and had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

 

“He’s just wonderful!” Ellette replied. “He’s just got a promotion at his very important job!”

 

“Congratulaton!” Eris said with a smile.

 

“Congratulations.” Mace corrected firmly.

 

Eris gave him a sour look before turning back to Ellette.

 

“You must be so proud of your Husband, Lady Ellette!”

 

Ellette nodded as she nibbled daintily on one of the biscuits that he wasn’t allowed to touch ‘because he ate like a pig and no Lady wanted to see that’.

 

“Of course, of course. How are your darling children, Lady Eris?”

 

Mace aborted his laugh halfway through as both girls glared at him from under their large, floppy hats. God he hoped when he got daughters that they weren’t like Ellette and Eris…or his oldest sister, Tegan. He could handle the twins, Eva and Ave, they were just rougher than most girls, easier to fight, especially with one another, and more likely to be found rolling in the mud than playing dress up. All you had to do was wrestle with them and they were happy, he could do that easily. But this, having a tea party with water at a tiny table in a stupid hat…this was torture.

 

“Go away, Lady Mace. You’re having your period!”

 

Mace almost died hearing that and he had to hold his stomach as he laughed so hard that he couldn’t breathe.

 

“Get out!” Eris told him and Mace made his getaway while he could as he dumped his stupid hat and left their shared bedroom, wiping his eyes as his laughter trailed off.

His peace didn’t last any longer than it took him to get down to the ground floor of the house. He was going to get a handful of his own biscuits that his Dad Max had made over Christmas from the kitchen and then go up to his room to tell Facebook what his sisters had said, leaving out that he’d been a part of their tea party naturally, when he was ambushed by the four missing sextuplets, Eiren, Eurei, Errai and Emerus, who grabbed his hands, two on each hand, and dragged him into the living room.

 

“Mace!” Eurei called out to him, his jet black hair stuck up all over the place as his dark blue eyes pleaded with him.

 

He groaned. “What do you want? I only just got away from Eris and Ellette.”

 

“Teach us how to play rugby! Like you play!”

 

“Our Mum and Dads’ said that you weren’t allowed to learn until you’re older. It’s a dangerous game.” Mace told them seriously.

 

“But if you just told us how to play!” Eiren pleaded, his own massive dark blue eyes breaking down his defences.

 

Mace sighed. “Come on then, but you’re not playing properly!” He told them sternly as the four boys cheered and rushed to clear a space in the living room…it was snowing again outside.

 

“What are you up to?” His Dad Draco asked with narrowed eyes as his arms cradled their newest brother, Lyran, in his arms. He had only just turned a year old.

 

“I’m teaching them to play, Dad. That’s all.” Mace explained as he got his brothers into position and dug out a rugby ball for them to throw around.

 

“We said no rugby until they were at least seven.” His Dad said angrily.

 

“I know. They aren’t going to properly play though and definitely no scrums. I’m just going to teach them how to pass the ball properly and ingrain the rules into them.”

 

“No tackling either.” His Dad said seriously. “They’re only five.”

 

Mace nodded his understanding as he went down on his knees and started running through the rules, how to hold the ball and how to throw it, telling Errai off when the white blond haired boy threw the ball to Eiren.

 

“No, no, no, Errai! You don’t throw the ball forward in rugby, you throw it back! Throwing it forward is called a forward pass and if it’s deliberate, it’s a foul that will give your opposing side a penalty reward.”

 

“So no throwing it forward.” Errai nodded and moved to stand behind Eiren, who threw the ball behind him to Emerus.

 

“Like that?” Eiren asked brightly.

 

Mace grinned. “Just like that.”

 

They kept this up for a while as their Dad watched them, rocking Lyran on the settee as he watched Mace teach the four five year olds how to play his favourite sport. At least until a scream from further in the house had the four five year olds stilling immediately and had Mace’s wings vibrating hard against his spine, he stood up quickly, it had been a distress call from one of his siblings. His Dad Draco came to him and handed over baby Lyran gently before leaving the room quickly and Mace didn’t hesitate to take him, despite how very uncomfortable he was with how tiny Lyran was in relation to how massive and muscular he was.

He got the four boys behind him and he placed himself so that he could see both the doors that led into the massive living room they were in, even as he cradled the tiny, thirteen month old baby he was trying his hardest not to harm. He never felt comfortable holding his baby siblings, or his baby nieces and nephews. Farren felt the same, but he was even bigger than Farren was and now that Farren was a Father of two with his submissive mate, Georgie, and thus more comfortable with newborns after she had given him two of their own, he’d learnt to become more comfortable with newborns as he’d had to step up to the mark to look after them. Mace had had no such luxury yet as he wasn’t mated, there had only been six mate meetings since he’d come into his inheritance a year last November and he hadn’t liked a single one of them.

 

“Macie, I’m scared.” Emerus said softly.

 

The other three boys made murmurs of agreement and he felt a tiny hand fist at the back of his jeans.

 

“It’ll be alright.” Mace soothed. “It’s probably just Jason or Ethan having a tantrum. You know they’re coming into their big Dracken inheritances in three months, they’re just using their new found abilities as weapons now that they can.”

 

Mace didn’t mention that their brothers were suffering from a serious lack of control at the moment as their Dracken inheritance drew nearer, even sweet Saeth was more temperamental these days with his approaching inheritance. The only quadruplet who wasn’t affected was the oldest one, Ceri, who was the only one of them who wasn’t a Dracken.

Of course after their brother had gotten pregnant at fourteen through dubious events where no one was sure if he’d even given his consent or if he’d been raped or not, everyone had made sure that it would never, ever happen again…Mace remembered how angry everyone had been, how angry _he’d_ been. Of course the quadruplets were being temperamental and protective of one another, especially as it was becoming increasingly clear that their baby Saeth was going to be a submissive male. Jason and Ethan were growing visibly almost by the day, putting on weight and they were always hungry, as he and the other dominants had when they were coming up to their sixteenth birthdays. Saeth by comparison was not growing all that much and he wasn’t dying of hunger like his two older brothers.

All of them were preparing for Saeth to become a submissive Dracken, as they’d done before with the three other submissive Drackens of their family, not that Saeth was happy about it. There were other Drackens in Hogwarts after all.

Mace was going to look after baby Saeth in Hogwarts, he and his twin were in their final year and they were both Drackens, though thankfully there was also Saeth’s own quadruplet brothers, because Dracken or not, Ceri would sell his left arm to protect all three of his younger quad brothers and Jason and Ethan were looking to be dominant Drackens and they could definitely protect Saeth between them, if indeed he did turn out to be a submissive, but after going through his own inheritance and seeing with his own eyes the differences playing out between Jason, Ethan and Saeth, it was becoming obvious that their baby Saeth would be another submissive. Their Dads’ were particularly protective of him, but their Mum always rolled his eyes and told them to leave off. Their Mum was cool like that.

Their Mum came in with a bleeding Jason and he did not look impressed. He sat Jason down on the settee and he purred softly to them and all at once the four little five year olds rushed to him for a hug.

 

“It’s alright, sweeties.” He soothed softly. “Your brothers were fighting upstairs and they frightened Saeth into letting out a scream.”

 

Mace felt his shoulders automatically relax and he rolled his eyes.

 

“Who won?” Eiren asked curiously.

 

“Judging by his face, Ethan won.” Mace said looking at his sullen brother and the blood pouring from his busted lip.

 

“No one won!” Their Mother snapped. “Fighting is not a game and it’s not a competition. Do you think I like seeing my sons fighting one another like witless animals?” He demanded. “Do you think I like seeing Jason covered in blood or Ethan knocked unconscious on the floor?”

 

“Sorry Mum.” Mace apologised, thoroughly chastened. He knew his Mum hated violence and hated seeing any of them fighting. He even went mad when their Dads’ had a fight.

 

“Sorry Mummy!” The four sextuplets copied him.

 

“Is Lye alright?” His Mum asked softly, bringing the aggression in the room right down.

 

“Fine.” Mace said looking down at the sleeping year old baby. “He’s fast asleep now.”

 

Their Mum nodded and then their Dad Max came in with two potions and packets of gauze. Mace sat down and watched as between them, their Mum and Dad fixed up Jason and told him off at the same time for getting himself into this state.

 

“You sit there and you stay there.” Their Mum said to Jason sternly. “Have Nasta and Draco sorted out Ethan?”

 

“I’m sure they’re sorting it.” His Dad replied with a sigh.

 

“Why do your sons always like fighting?”

 

His Dad laughed. “I make good looking, strong sons. You can’t deny that they’re the best of the best! So they’re a little aggressive, and overly large, they’re just taking after me!”

 

Mace laughed deeply. He and Jason were both the biological sons of their Dad Max.

 

“Exactly!”

 

“What does that mean?” Their Dad whined, which made the four sextuplets giggle.

 

“Caveman!” Their Mum huffed. “Come along you four, you need some biscuits!”

 

“Yay Mummy! Biscuits!” Eurei cheered.

 

“I want biscuit too, Mama!” Emerus pleaded.

 

Mace was left alone, his baby brother in his arms still and Jason sulking on the settee opposite him. He sighed and cradled the baby in his arms, feeling more comfortable sitting down than he was standing up…if he dropped the baby from his full height of six, nine then there was next to no chance that Lyran would survive. That thought made him feel dizzy as bile climbed his throat and he obsessively checked to make sure his baby brother was safe in his arms.

Lyran cracked open blue-grey eyes and a tiny mouth puckered up in a soft yawn. Mace smiled adoringly as he reached over to the side table and snatched one of the several dummies from it. He popped it into his mouth for a moment, just in case it had been dropped, before he offered it to Lyran. His baby brother accepted it happily and then dropped back off to sleep in his arms.

 

“How did you and Farren get away with fighting all the time?” Jason asked him sullenly.

 

“We were smarter than you and Ethan.” Mace replied. “We used to fight in the gym, where we could claim that we were just sparring.”

 

Jason pouted and Mace had to smile at his little brother. It was likely because both Jason and Ethan were coming into a Dracken inheritance together that they were acting this way. He had done the same with his own twin and Eva and Ave had been fucking awful. That had been almost hell on earth because they were inclined to fight one another without a highly emotional, hormone changing, fledging, Dracken inheritance on top of their puberty hormones.

He sighed and sat back, taking a moment of peace to just sit with his baby brother before he’d have to go back to revising. They’d all be back in Hogwarts in a week and he’d be away from all his baby siblings again, but until then he was going to enjoy them as much as he could.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

August 2028

 

Calix cowered in the passenger seat of the car and he had a death grip on the car door.

 

“Damn it, Loren!” He cursed as his eighteen year old baby brother almost wrapped them around a tree.

 

“Stop being an old man, Calix!” Loren chuckled as he shifted gear and sent him a look.

 

“Watch the road!” Calix insisted as he tried to calm his racing heart and his death filled mind to try and teach his brother how to drive properly. Loren had his provisional, but he needed some more lessons before he could take his full test. Calix was trying to teach him after their older brother, Braiden, had flat out refused to get back into a car with Loren.

 

“I am watching the road!” Loren insisted as he jarred the car and then stalled on a roundabout. “Shit! Come on, come on!”

 

Calix was almost sick as Loren got the car moving again, almost forgetting to turn before moving the car forward. As a result the car almost went right over the top of the roundabout.

 

“You’re terrible at this! Maybe it’s a good thing you can’t pass your theory!” Calix almost whimpered.

 

“Stop being a fucking baby!” Loren demanded as he got to the outskirts of the town before circling around and heading back to the home that Lore was currently living in and where Calix had spent nearly all of his life.  

 

He was thirty years old now and he was very happily single still and still childless. Loren was not single and he was not childless, which made Calix feel strange that the baby brother he was trying to teach how to drive had a two year old daughter.

 

“Do you kiss Angel with that mouth?” Calix quipped.

 

“Hey! You leave my baby girl out of this.” Loren demanded. “Angel isn’t going to make me drive better.”

 

“She might if she was in the backseat…” Calix joked…if Loren ever tried to put Angel in the car with him, Calix would give his own life to save hers from his hopeless baby brother.

 

He still couldn’t believe how much his family was growing. He’d thought it was bad getting a new sibling or three every year or two, it seemed like every family dinner they had at the end of every month there was someone else announcing a pregnancy. He had gotten fifteen nephews and thirteen nieces in thirteen years and it was only August. Twenty-twenty-eight wasn’t over yet.

They made it back home in one piece, thankfully. Calix locked his car and went inside with Loren, who lived here with his submissive mate and their two year old…their house was being renovated and their Mum had immediately offered for them to move in until the work was done.

Calix smiled sadly as he hugged his Mum, who grinned widely, but those green eyes, the gorgeous green eyes that only a handful of them had taken, were so sad. Their Mum hadn’t had a heat period in six years now and he was so sad because of it. It looked like his Mum wouldn’t have another heat period ever…after the sextuplets it was a miracle that their Mum had had three additional babies. Especially after how long it had taken him to recover from it. He’d been in so much pain, vomiting every other morning for months afterwards because of the damage that had been done to his body.

Lyran had been a miracle, then when Caronwyn had come the year after they’d all thought that maybe the sextuplets hadn’t had that much of an effect on their super fertile Mother once he had finally recovered from carrying and birthing them, but then it had taken three years to get their baby Larsen and that birth had taken so much out on their Mother that he had seemed to age a decade in a few short months. That had been their last added sibling and it didn’t seem likely that they were going to have any more as six years was soon to be seven without even a hint of a heat period.

 

“Unca Lix!”

 

Calix grinned and swept up the tiny two year old who was running towards him, arms outstretched, and he kissed her neck and face repeatedly.

 

“There’s my baby niece!” He cried happily. “How are you baby, Angel?”

 

“I fine!” Angel replied with a grin full of tiny teeth.

 

“Calix! You’re my brother!” Larsen pouted, the six year old not very impressed that he was being left out of the family hug.

 

“Ah, but you’re my baby.” Their Mum said as he swept Larsen in to a big hug and kissed him.

 

Larsen giggled. “I want a brother hug!” He insisted.

 

Calix handed Angel over to their Mother and he swung Larsen in a big circle and gave him a tight bear hug. Larsen giggled happily and wrapped skinny arms around Calix’s neck.

They made their way through the house and out into the garden and Calix had to laugh as he saw his Dad Max bellowing like he was about to go into war, waving a cardboard ‘sword’ and chasing after several little kids wearing cardboard ‘armour’.

 

“What in the world is he doing now? I leave him alone for two hours and this is what he gets up to.” His Mum groaned. “Max! What are you doing?”

 

“All bow before the Queen!” His Dad Max yelled out at the top of his lungs before he dropped to one knee.

 

All the little kids he had been chasing did the same and Calix laughed harder. He really, really loved his Dad Max, who was still just as fun now as he’d been when he was a baby. He hadn’t changed a single bit and Calix was grateful and thankful for that.

He moved over to the end of the porch where most of his adult siblings were sat with their Dad Nasta, who had a little baby cuddled on his lap, Calix noticed as he got closer that it was Xabiere’s youngest, Ffion. She was turning a year old this month.

 

“Calix, you’re still alive!” Regan chuckled.

 

“No thanks to Braiden.” Calix answered with a glare to his slightly older brother. He was turning thirty-one in a few weeks.

 

Braiden chuckled happily, even as he kept an eye on his five children, running around with their Dad Max.

 

“I told you not to go near a car with Loren.” Braiden said with a smile.

 

Calix huffed. “Someone has to teach him. He stalled the car on a roundabout and almost drove over it! A roundabout! How does someone almost drive over a roundabout?!”

 

“He’s lethal.” Braiden agreed, but his attention was taken by his children again as he watched his youngest, Tate, toddling around after their Dad. He was coming up to two and Braiden was still very protective of him. Only his one mate was here with him today and Calix smiled and nodded to Boden, who grinned and nodded back.

 

A big man, Boden overshadowed Braiden by several feet and outweighed him by over a hundred pounds to boot, but the arm around Braiden’s shoulders was a heavy, comforting weight and just screamed protective mate.

 

“How are you, Bo?” He asked as he took a gulp of his iced lemonade.

 

“I’m wonderful. Never better.” Boden replied as he shared a gooey eyed look with Braiden that made Calix want to be sick.

 

“God, Boden. Braiden’s our older brother, rein it in.” Farren teased, even as his own pregnant submissive, Georgie, was perched in his lap.

 

“I’m your Father, how about you all knock off your public affection for my sake.”

 

They all laughed as their Dad Nasta made himself known from his shady corner where he was still cradling the napping Ffion.

 

“Oh please.” Xabiere laughed. “Dad you are so bad when Mum gives you a smile that you go blank and lose focus.”

 

The rest of them laughed at the truth of that and even their Dad Nasta laughed.

 

“I do love your Mother very much.” He said consideringly, before a loud bellow made Ffion shift in his arms.

 

They all looked to where their Mother had ‘pinned’ their Dad Max, who was bellowing in ‘death throes’, to the grass and was claiming victory with the horde of cheering children.

 

“He complains about Dad Max, but he’s just as bad.” Calix laughed.

 

“Oh god, they’ve started.” Regan groaned.

 

Calix looked back over and saw his parents snogging on the grass, his Mum in his Dad’s lap, who was now sat up, game forgotten as he wrapped those massive arms around his Mum.

 

“Get a room!” Taren yelled out.

 

Their table laughed and Calix grinned as his Mum and Dad looked up at them and then went right back to kissing for a moment before his Mum stood up and started herding the kids into the shade.

Calix accepted two nephews onto his lap and he didn’t mind that Sinclair, who had taken the seat next to him, took his lemonade and gulped it down.

 

“Sina, that was your Uncle Calix’s.” Farren chastised his son.

 

“Uncle Calix doesn’t mind, Dad!” The eleven year old Sinclair groaned.

 

Calix felt queasy as he realised that this boy next to him was already in Hogwarts. A Slytherin of all things. Where had the time gone? Hell, his nephew Nico was almost fourteen! He could still remember being fourteen himself.   

His youngest sister, Caronwyn, climbed onto his lap and wormed her way between her own nephews and himself to claim his lap fully.

 

“Hello Caron.” He said with a grin.

 

“Calix.” She hugged him and he kissed her forehead, shoving her messy black hair out of the way first.

 

“What do you want, Princess?”

 

“Will you push me on the swing?”

 

Calix looked at the swing and slide set that had been bought new a few years ago. He smiled as he remembered playing on a set similar to this one when he was a kid.

 

“Sure, come on.” Calix put her down and then scooped up his nephews, Declan and Caius, the first was Braiden’s six year old, the second was Tegan’s one and only child, so he made sure to take extra care with his sac-sister’s year old treasure as he placed them down on the chair he had just vacated.

 

Calix pulled Caronwyn onto his lap and slid, slowly, down the slide that attached to the porch ad ended on the grass instead of going down the several steps.

He could hear his family laughing, but he just grinned. He didn’t care. He was thirty years old, not eighty. He could still play with his nine year old baby sister like a teenager if he wanted.

 

“You’re the best, Calix.” Caronwyn told him with a grin through hazel eyes that were more gold than brown.

 

“Of course I am! Make sure you tell that to all of our other brothers and sisters too!” He said with a laugh as he got her on the swing and then started pushing her, making sure not to push too hard or send her too high, despite her screeches for ‘higher!’

 

He never thought that it would happen, as a teenager he’d been adamant that he didn’t want children, he couldn’t understand his Dracken siblings when they told him that they ‘ached’ for children. It had seemed so strange to him, so completely alien that he just couldn’t understand them or how they wanted a child so bad and while they were so young too, just teenagers still! But now, now he sort of understood, because he finally felt like settling down and maybe starting a family of his own and for years he had thought that he never would, particularly in his teenaged years and his early twenties. His Mum would be absolutely thrilled, he was sure.

But as he pushed his baby sister, who was twenty-one years younger than him, on the swing, listening to her giggling and screeching which made him smile and laugh, he felt the same protective love he did for all of his brothers and sisters, but maybe this protective love would be the same as what he’d feel for a child of his own.

 

“Hey Calix!” Mace shouted out over the decking. “Loren’s mate is pregnant again!”

 

Calix groaned. Seriously, every single family get together, someone else announced a pregnancy. Maybe it _was_ a good thing that he wasn’t having any kids of his own, because their family was definitely big enough already. Maybe he would find a girl and she wouldn’t even want kids. He could only hope, but until then, he had his brothers and sisters and his baby nieces and nephews. That was enough to handle by anyone’s standards.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well I wanted to give you lovelies some more information on the babies and even the grandbabies in this one, I hope you like them! I do have a particular love of Mace, he’s a favourite, as you could probably tell from this chapter. Though Saeth is definitely a trouble magnet! He’s a favourite too, though I love them all.
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	46. Dragon Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter starts in January 2019 and moves on to the end of May 2019 and then into June 2019. It contains a scene of self-mutilation for the purpose of childbirth.

Dragon Blues

 

It had been going on for months now, Harry thought with a frown. He picked up his baby Lyran and held him close, kissing his soft skin.

He looked to Nasta, just slumped in the chair in the garden despite the fact that it was bitterly cold outside, being the height of January and he was wearing just a vest. He’d been doing the same thing for the last several months…ever since his most favourite dragon, the one who he had loved from his very first day on the job, had died last June. He was going to get very sick soon if he carried on.

Nasta had been so devastated that he’d been inconsolable, though that hadn’t stopped any of them from trying to comfort him. Things had only really gotten bad when he’d given birth to Lyran, because then Nasta had really let himself go and he’d withdrawn so far into himself that they couldn’t even talk to him. Harry hated Nasta’s way of grieving more than any of his other mates, because he holed himself up inside and wouldn’t let any of them in. There was nothing they could do to help him, they just had to watch him sitting out in the snow by himself and if they tried to go near him, he snapped at them or worse.

 

“Is he still out there?” Max asked worriedly.

 

Harry nodded miserably. “He hasn’t moved.”

 

“I’ll go and see him. Again.” Max sighed.

 

“Be careful. He punched Draco in the stomach when he tried to coax him inside.”

 

“Yeah, well Draco still isn’t the most patient or tactile person in the world, is he?” Max snorted. “You go and give this little guy his bath and get him into bed and I’ll see what I can do about Sir Gloomy.”

 

Harry let out a shuddering breath. “Maybe _I_ should be the one to talk to him.”

 

Max smiled, but it was strained. “I promise I won’t call him that within his hearing. I like my throat intact.”

 

Harry gave up and left Nasta to Max. He went up to the bathroom on the second floor instead to bathe his miracle baby. After all the pain and the disruption to his body that the sextuplets had given him, he really had worried that they would be his last set of children. After nearly three years with no sign of a heat period, he’d been almost certain of it.

Then he had had a dry heat, suddenly, out of the blue because none of them had been looking out for the signs. He had been so happy. Even more so when two months later he’d gone into another heat period, another dry one, but he didn’t care, he was back onto his normal breeding cycle, every two months.

He’d had three dry heats before he’d had his first fertile heat in three years and he’d been so very happy. He’d caught on his very first fertile heat and he’d just been so happy that he didn’t even care that his mates hovered around him from the moment he woke up until the time that he fell asleep at night, and even then they held his body close and tight as if they were afraid that he’d disappear. After what had happened during some of his pregnancies and after some of the stunts he’d pulled whilst pregnant, he didn’t actually blame them anymore. He had been too happy to care as he got all of his children, and their children, around the massive dining room table to tell them all the good news.

He’d carried his miracle Lyran for exactly seven months at which point he’d gone into his nest and his baby had been born ten days later. He’d been absolutely perfect in every way. His pregnancy had been a breeze, his nesting had been textbook, he’d actually gone overdue, one of only a handful of times that he had actually gone overdue instead of birthing premature, but his newborn baby had been just perfect. Everything was perfect and after four years of not having any baby at all, suddenly his arms were cradling a newborn again, they were doing night feeds and nappy changes. They’d dealt with everything as easily as if the four year grace period had never happened, even dealing with Lyran’s very first Dragon Pox vaccine the other week, in which everyone had been covered in tears and snot and even vomit, but in his eyes, his month old Lyran was perfect.

 

“Mum, are you okay? You don’t look well.”

 

Harry looked up, an automatic smile on his mouth for his recently turned sixteen year old Mace.

 

“I’m alright, Mace.”

 

“You don’t look it.”

 

Harry sighed. “Between your Dad Nasta and Xabiere getting suspended, the whole mess with Saeth and now Evie has mated right away too. Not to mention Braiden’s just had another baby, Georgie is pregnant again and Farren is trying to protect her and look after Sinclair as well. It seems like everything’s a mess.”

 

“It’ll be alright, Mum.” Mace assured him and threw those massive arms around him and hugged him tight.

 

He felt like he was the child in his Father’s arms with the height difference between him and his Mace, who was over a foot and a half taller than he was. That made him chuckled and he pulled back and brought his sixteen year old’s head down to kiss his forehead.

 

“Don’t worry about Evie, we’ve been owling one another and everything’s fine. Judy is awesome, they need another mate though, so they’re going back now in a week or two.” Mace informed him.

 

“You’re a good boy, Mace. Things will get better, I know they will, it’s just your Dad Nas is going through a very bad time.”

 

“He really loved that dragon, didn’t he?”

 

Harry nodded. “Yeah, he did. She was his favourite and she was old when he started at the Dragon reserve forty odd years ago. He knew that she wouldn’t live forever, but on the other hand he never expected her to go so suddenly.”

 

“He never said, but was she sick?” Mace asked.

 

Harry sighed. “Yeah, she was really bad in the end and she stopped eating. The Handlers couldn’t tempt her with anything and Nasta even special ordered her most favourite meat, but she didn’t want to know, she wouldn’t eat anything. There was nothing that the Handlers could do, nothing your Dad could do. They just had to watch her die. I think that’s what upset him worse. Just, try to be kinder to him for a bit.”

 

Mace nodded and Harry patted his side and moved towards the bathroom to bathe the sleepy Lyran. He couldn’t help but feel like their lives were falling apart yet again.

It wasn’t just Nasta being all depressed, moody and distant, but that certainly didn’t help, especially not with Mace and Evie having their inheritances a few months ago and having Xabiere at home for two months because he’d been suspended, not that Harry blamed his son for beating that little shit to a pulp (not that he’d ever verbally admit that little tid bit to any of his children), but by far the worst thing to happen was finding out that their fourteen year old Saeth was being abused and harassed while in school.

Harry had felt sick as he held his hysterically crying baby in his arms and listened to McGonagall tell them that Xabiere was being suspended for beating another kid to a pulp and that their Saeth had been sexually assaulted. Their already quiet little boy had been even more so over Christmas and they still hadn’t found out if anything more than touches and forced kisses had occurred. Saeth was being incredibly tight lipped about everything, but they did find out that it had been going back as far as Saeth’s second year, when he’d been just twelve!

After that little piece of information had come out, Lucius had exploded and he’d made sure that the boy who’d dared touched their baby was expelled before any of the Drackens in the family found him, because every single one of them wanted the bastard dead and each of them would have done it personally if it hadn’t been for Lucius stepping in to handle things more level headedly…and legally.

Three months of having to dodge Saeth’s protective, and pissed off, quadruplet brothers Ceri, Ethan and Jason, and the boy didn’t put up much of a fuss when he was told that his, already severe actions, had just become that much more severe with new information and that a line had been firmly crossed. Harry believed that it was the reminder that not only Xabiere would be back in the school in the new term, but Mace would be too, Mace who happened to be in the same house as him and as big as a tank, that had had the eighteen year old accepting his expulsion so readily.

Saeth had stopped creeping around the school according to the last letter from Jason, since the bastard had been expelled. Harry was glad, he could breathe easier now that the threat to Saeth was gone, it was exhausting to try and control his urge to go to the school and obliterate the threat to his baby. He’d been controlling himself excessively since he found out that his Saeth was being abused, it had gotten harder during the Christmas period, seeing Saeth so quiet and miserable and he’d had to force his Dracken into the very depths of himself to prevent him from taking flight and going to kill the kid who’d hurt his baby so badly.

Harry sighed and undressed his month old Lyran as he filled the bath with water. These last few months had been disastrous, but he had his miracle baby after four years of having no babies at all. It felt like bliss to hold him close to his chest, to dip his little bum into the warm water and watch indulgently as his sleeping face screwed up as he was disturbed. It was adorable.

He washed Lyran lingeringly and thoroughly. He didn’t really want to go back downstairs to Nasta. He understood that his mate was hurting, but the distance between them hurt him. Being ignored by his dominant, being pushed away emotionally and even physically when Nasta was in a mood, it was like a white hot knife to his heart. He couldn’t deal with it, so he would leave Nasta to Max. He wasn’t happy with Nasta anyway, for punching Draco earlier, there was no excuse for it.

 

“Come on, Lye.” Harry cooed. “Let’s get you dried and warm and get you into bed.”

 

Harry cuddled his son dry before he got him into a clean nappy and dressed him in one of the white night dresses that all of their children had worn, just because they were so much easier than fighting with a bunch of poppers and leg holes at three in the morning.

He climbed onto his bed and swaddled his little boy up in his blanket and he rested back and he started humming as he rocked Lyran in his arms, watching those greyish, slightly blue tinted eyes looked up at him, before Lyran yawned and blinked his eyes closed.

Harry grinned as he brushed jet black hair out of Lyran’s eyes. He chuckled to himself. One of Draco’s children, with jet black hair. It wasn’t totally Potter hair, so Draco wasn’t that upset, but it did have a tendency to stay stuck up in odd places, particularly in the mornings when Lyran had just woken up, and after his naps too.

Harry sighed as he put Lyran into his bassinet by their bedside and he really didn’t want to go back downstairs, especially as Blaise had put their twelve youngest to bed already. Their Faerie twins might have been eight years old, but they still needed as much sleep as they could get in order to develop properly.

Lian was their oldest child at home as he’d just turned eleven in December, well, after Mace that was, who was home because of his Dracken inheritance, which was playing havoc with his temper and he was still having trouble controlling the urge to shift. Max was working with him daily, but with Nasta separating himself from them all in his grief, things were not looking good for any of them.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

It was late May when Harry realised that something wasn’t quite right. He really didn’t feel right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. His Dracken was rebelling furiously at something, and fearful that it was to do with Saeth, he was burying his Dracken further than he ever had before and he’d had a few dizzy spells and nauseous moments because of it.

 

“You look green, are you sure you’re alright? You’ve been strange since you had Lyran.” Blaise told him.

 

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Harry insisted as he spooned more pureed pears into a five month old Lyran’s mouth.

 

“Mummy, I want my beaker.” Emerus demanded.

 

“I’m feeding your brother, ask one of your Dads’ to get it, love.”

 

“No, Mummy get it!”

 

“Just give me a moment then, Emmy.” Harry insisted as he spooned the mush from Lyran’s chin and poked it into his mouth.

 

“Now!” Emerus demanded, stamping a tiny foot.

 

“Stand in the corner. Four minutes.” Nasta snapped straight away. “Your Mother told you to wait.”

 

Emerus did not go quietly and Harry’s head pounded as Lyran hit his hands against the highchair tray. Nasta was getting better, slowly, but he was still short and snappish, even with their children, as he’d just shown.

His Dracken side screamed inside him and Harry growled lowly and shoved it further back. He couldn’t deal with his damn feral Dracken at the moment. He had enough on his plate at the moment without his Dracken side butting in too.

 

“Come on, Lyran, just a little more.” He coaxed with a forced grimace.

 

“Ma na.” Lyran cooed with a giggle, bashing his hands against the tray harder.

 

“Right, I give up.” Harry sighed, dropping the spoon into the bowl and standing up.

 

“You never give up feeding the kids every last spoonful.” Max said concernedly.

 

“Yeah, well today I am.” Harry snapped, very bad temperedly.

 

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

 

“I’m fucking fine!” He snapped louder, more violently.

 

Max sighed and dropped his head into his hand before he sat back up and rubbed at his face. “I’ll sort out Lyran, just…just go, Harry.”

 

Growling, Harry stormed out and he felt his hands clenching and his body was aching like he’d run a marathon up a mountain. They hadn’t had sex since shortly after Lyran was born and it was not helping their moods at all. One night of sex while they’d been taken over by the excitement of the coming Christmas festivities was not enough.

They’d gone five months now without sex or really any sort of intimacy at all, he couldn’t even remember the last time that he’d kissed one of his mates and it brought tears to his eyes as his Dracken roared inside him. Maybe he should plan a surprise for them, but then with the way that he was feeling himself, he’d more than likely tear their throats out. He just didn’t know what to do to make things better.

He cupped his post-pregnancy pouch and scowled at it. It had been five months since he’d birthed Lyran, he shouldn’t still have his fucking pouch. That pissed him off too.

 

“Where are you going?” Nasta asked, coming out of the living room, having put Emerus in the corner for his time out.

 

“Max kicked me out of the kitchen.” Harry grumbled.

 

“Are you sure you’re okay? You look flushed.”

 

“Because I’m fucking angry and I’m sick of everyone asking me if I’m alright!” Harry shouted.

 

Nasta snarled at him and Harry was forced to still and duck his head when he wanted to leap up and tear Nasta’s face off.

 

“Go to the bedroom, stay there and calm down.” Nasta ordered him and Harry took a deep breath and followed Nasta’s order as he didn’t have any other choice, but he made sure to glare at his mate as he did so, letting him know exactly what he thought of him for ordering him around like an animal.

 

This stress couldn’t go on, it wasn’t fair on their children. Lyran had been born into this atmosphere and didn’t know anything different. Hell he’d been pregnant with Lyran when all of this had started, though back then Nasta had tried to curb himself for the sake of his pregnancy. Now he didn’t bother. It couldn’t carry on, something had to be done.

He climbed onto his bed and lay down, just resting and trying to think of something that he could do to help the situation, but he just didn’t know how to help Nasta get over the loss of his favourite girl, Caronwyn. She’d been so special to him, he’d loved her so much and he’d known her for forty years, he’d cared for her, helped her birth and rear her numerous young, treated her when she was sick or injured. They’d had a special bond and now she was dead, wasted away before his very eyes while he watched on, helpless to do anything for her. It had been almost a full year since she had gone and _still_ Nasta wasn’t over it.

A spiteful, hate filled part of Harry’s mind taunted him that Nasta hadn’t been this upset when their own children had died. That he hadn’t grieved for this long when they’d lost their babies, but he squashed it viciously. Thoughts like that wouldn’t help anyone and would only enflame the situation.

Harry stayed up in the bedroom all afternoon, just lying comfortably on the bed and thinking and trying to find out a way to sort out the hideous situation that they were all trapped in, but without Nasta’s cooperation, he didn’t see any way that anything he tried would actually work.

 

“Harry! Dinner!” Max yelled up the stairs.

 

“Coming!” He shouted back.

 

“You better not be without me!” Max shouted back and Harry laughed for what felt like the first time in an age.

 

Harry sighed and with a smile he rolled himself up and off of the bed…only to feel a ripping sensation and a white wash of absolute agony.

He collapsed to the bedroom floor with a scream and his Dracken side took advantage of his mental distraction and ripped itself out of him for the first time since he’d birthed Lyran, throwing up exceedingly strong wards and screaming as the pain almost rolled his eyes back into his head.

Hammering on the door did nothing but disturb and annoy him and he screeched in anger and pain as he tore the fabric away from his body with his claws.

He pulled the little cradle right to the side of the bed before he climbed back onto it. He sniffed and purred approvingly as he scented his mates. With another wave of agony and an inhuman screech, he made himself comfortable, got onto his knees and spread them, letting his belly fall between his legs for easier access before he cut into himself and screamed louder.

Carefully, using the claw of his index finger, he cut into his belly and the sac underneath and plunged one of his hands into his body, using the other hand as a guide to push down on his pouch to make it easier for him to grab the baby’s neck. He moved his hand inside himself slowly, feeling around carefully and gently, slipping his fingers over the umbilical cord, past a skinny, stick like arm and he wrapped them around a tiny, brittle neck and he pulled out a baby.

He put the baby on the bed and he put his hand back inside himself and felt around. Not finding another baby, he tore out the placenta and used a strip of ripped fabric from the cover he was sat on and he tied off the cord. He screeched and screamed in pain every time he moved so much as a fraction, but he was thankful to hear the baby crying underneath his own screams.

He pulled the tiny baby up and onto his chest as he screamed anew with the pain that it caused him to lift even the slight weight of his newborn. He was screaming long into the night, long after the baby had gone to sleep and when he finally stopped screaming, it was because he’d fallen unconscious due to sheer exhaustion.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

“Nasta, what’s happening?” Draco asked fearfully.

 

“I don’t know.” Nasta answered just as worriedly as he tried to break into the bedroom, where Harry was screaming without stopping.

 

All he could think about was Harry being on the other side of this flimsy wooden door, in absolute agony, screaming himself hoarse. All sorts of scenarios were running through his head, from Harry falling and breaking a leg, to poachers being in his house and torturing his submissive.

 

“We can’t break these wards.” Blaise said worriedly. “They’re too strong.”

 

“No luck with the window.” Max said as he jogged back to them. “The entire room has been warded, I could get through the en suite window, but the bathroom door is warded too.”

 

“Harry!” Nasta yelled out, hammering on the door. “Please answer us!”

 

Their only answer was another screech of agony. They paced the corridor and called in their family members to help, but no one knew what was wrong or what had happened. Alexander rounded up the terrified kids and took them back to his house with Kimberly while Richard and Aneirin tried everything they could think of to get into the room.

Nasta wished that Myron were there, he would have known what to do. Instead he had to scrub a hand through his greying hair and figure out what was happening himself.

Harry didn’t stop screaming until eleven at night, about six hours after he’d started, and when he did, it was a sudden, immediate silencing that made Nasta’s spine stiffen, his wings flexing behind him as all the hairs on his body stood up on end. That sudden silence wasn’t natural.

 

“Harry!” He yelled, banging on the door as hard as he could. “Harry!”

 

All night they waited, banging on the door, listening and worrying about what the screaming and the eerie silence meant. Was their submissive, their amazing Harry, dead on the other side of their bedroom door? His heart clenched. He didn’t want the last thing Harry remembered of him to be himself ordering Harry up to the room he was in now, shouting at him, angry with him.

 

“Please Harry. I’ll be better, I swear!” He promised to the door and the silent room beyond. “Please, I’m sorry I’ve been a bastard for the last several months, I’m sorry. Just please be okay. Please.”

 

They heard nothing from the room, nothing for hours and hours and hours. It was mid-morning, almost twenty-four hours after Harry had started screaming, when they finally heard a loud grunt from the room and the rustling of fabric.

 

“Harry!” Max yelled, banging on the door. “Harry, can you hear me?”

 

“Yes.” Harry grunted back, sounding as exhausted as they’d ever heard him before in their lives. “Someone get me a painkiller….and a Healer.”

 

“You need a Healer?” Draco asked, terrified.

 

Harry grunted the affirmative and Nasta took charge.

 

“Max, pain potion. Draco, call the Counsel Halls and get them to send over a Healer immediately.”

 

The two of them were gone and Nasta tried the door to find it still warded.

 

“Harry, love, can you take down the wards on the room?”

 

“Can’t move.” Harry groaned.

 

“What happened?” Blaise asked.

 

“Awful.” Harry grunted. “I didn’t even know. I can’t see how it happened. What happened?”

 

Nasta’s heart clenched as Harry sounded so lost and afraid with those final two words. He sounded close to tears. He just wanted to be in the room with his submissive so that he could hold him and comfort him.

 

“Please take down the wards, Harry.” His Father, Aneirin, coaxed. “Push through the pain for a moment to pull down the wards and then we can help you. You can’t take a pain potion if we can’t get it to you, can you?”

 

Harry chuckled painfully and Nasta actually felt the wards fall they’d been that strong. He all but ripped the door from its hinges and the first thing that hit him was the heavy, pungent smell of blood with the tang of stale sweat and urine underneath it. The sight that met him was of blood and destruction. The bed sheets were ripped and tangled and there was blood everywhere. It was congealed in the carpet, splashed on their bedside table and even the wall and it was congealed more thickly on the bed where Harry was lying naked and painted the dual bright and dark red of fresh blood and the rust brown of old, dried blood. There was a gash in his belly that was still bleeding sluggishly.

Nasta rushed to him and pulled his fangs out, tearing into his own wrist before offering it to Harry, who turned his head away.

 

“Please drink.” Nasta urged, his voice breaking.

 

“Can’t. I need to wait for the Healer. It’s been open all night, I think it’s infected, if it’s closed now, you’ll be closing in all the bacteria.” Harry explained, panting hard, his forehead sweating profusely.

 

Nasta swallowed painfully and he nodded, running to the bathroom to grab a clean towel and rushing back to put pressure on the open wound.

 

“What happened, why did you do this?” Blaise asked as he tried to pull a bit of hair, stuck to Harry’s forehead with a smear of blood and fresh sweat, out of his eyes.

 

“I believe this might have something to do with it.” Aneirin said as he reached into Lyran’s bassinet, which had been pulled over to the side of the bed, and pulled out a bloodied newborn with a stub of umbilical cord.

 

Nasta’s heart stopped beating for a moment before his head snapped to Harry.

 

“You were pregnant! You didn’t even tell us!” He said in a shocked, hurt whisper.

 

“Didn’t know.” Harry burbled. “Thought the bump was just the pregnancy pouch left over from Lyran, but it wasn’t. I didn’t have a heat period, no morn…morning sickness, I didn’t have cravings or nesting ins…my Dracken was trying to tell me. That’s why I’ve been so…so agitated. I was pushing my Dracken aside because I thought it was….was just angry at you, but it was trying to get me to realise I was…that I was pregnant, trying to get me to nest…I’m so stupid.”

 

“You’re not the only one at fault.” Ashleigh told him, laying a hand on his head and gently caressing his face. “None of your mates realised that you were pregnant either. I didn’t even realise and I was here just the other week. No one realised, Harry.”

 

Draco rushed back into the room with a massive man following urgently behind him who would have put Max to shame. He was wearing the lime green over robes worn by Healers and he had a calm, reassuring air around him.

 

“I’m Georgio Alessandri.” He introduce in a deep, bass voice. “What’s happened here?”

 

“He gave birth, but we didn’t know that he was pregnant.” Nasta explained. “He didn’t have any of our blood to drink.”

 

Georgio nodded and immediately understood the implications. “How long has this wound been open?” He asked as he knelt by the side of the bed and peeled the towel from the wound.

 

“About twenty hours.” Max replied as he looked on worriedly.

 

Georgio just nodded calmly as he opened the bag he’d brought with him, pulling out a case of potion vials.

 

“I know you!” Harry burst out suddenly. “You’re Henley’s brother-in-law! You mated to his sister.”

 

Georgio blinked and looked at Harry from where he’d been carefully inspecting the wound.

 

“Yes, you know Henley?”

 

Harry nodded. “He was at my mate meeting. His first ever meeting. We’re friends now.”

 

“Harry Potter?” Georgio asked.

 

Harry nodded.

 

“Right then, I suppose I better take very good care of you, because Henley will scalp me if I do anything to harm his good friend.”

 

“He’s scared of you, you know.” Harry babbled.

 

Georgio smiled sadly. “I know. It’s his Father’s fault. I’m just glad I got my Clara away from his vile influence. He should never have become a Father. Now, let’s concentrate on you, Harry. I need you to drink these down for me, but it’ll be painful and they are some of the vilest tasting potions in existence.”

 

Max took the potions from Georgio and efficiently unstoppered them and got Harry to swallow them down, even though he didn’t want to and tried to dribble the potions back out of his mouth with a strong grimace.

Georgio patiently applied another potion to both sides of his wound and did a complicated wave of his wand, watching the gash very closely for any reaction. He nodded.

 

“He was beginning to get the start of an infection, but it wasn’t too bad so the potions that I’ve given to him will take care of it. I’ll leave two additional potions, one to be taken in six hours and the other tomorrow morning, but if one of you could give him some blood, it’ll be safe to close up this wound now.”

 

Nasta did so immediately as Georgio cleaned off his hands and then took the blooded newborn from Aneirin, checking over the baby carefully and replacing Harry’s makeshift cord clamp with a proper one from his bag before he declared her completely healthy, but in need of a bottle because she was dehydrated and a blanket because she was a little chilly.

 

“The kids are going to do their nut.” Richard cackled.

 

“Alexander is going to do his nut.” Harry chuckled hoarsely.

 

“I’m doing my nut!” Max said. “I can’t believe you were pregnant. Healer, do you know what gestation the baby is?”

 

Georgio smiled and he checked the baby over again. “I would say that Harry carried to five months.”

 

“I must have fallen pregnant just after we had Lyran, it was the only time that we were…you know.” Harry said.

 

“I told you having sex in front of the fire after he’d only just given birth would come back to bite us.” Draco huffed.

 

Harry laughed tiredly and accepted the baby, now wrapped in a blanket, from Aneirin as Ashleigh went to get a bottle. He cuddled with her and sniffed deeply, making sure that he had her scent locked in his mind, that he had taken in her scent properly yesterday. He did and he had.

 

“I think I already have a name for her.”

 

“You do?” Max asked in surprise. “That’s unusual. Normally it takes several days before you get a name.”

 

Harry nodded with a smile as he looked down at his newborn daughter. She had a tuft of black hair and a soft, pale pink mouth, her lips slightly cracked because she hadn’t eaten anything since she’d been born.

She hadn’t cried either, she’d just slept with him and wriggled a bit in the crook of his arm before he’d woken up and rolled her gently into the bassinet next to him and he’d fallen back asleep. Ashleigh came back with the bottle and Harry took it and fed his baby girl, watching as she suckled it quickly.

 

“She’s yours, Nas.” Harry said as he watched her feeding.

 

“She is?” Nasta asked thinly, his voice wavering.

 

He could have lost this child, the thought had been hounding him since he’d realised that Harry had been pregnant, that all this was because he’d given birth. Anything, anything at all could have happened to Harry, to their baby and he couldn’t get that thought out of his head. Knowing that this sweet baby girl was his, it made his arms ache to hold her tight and close. He wanted to hold Harry tight and close. He’d been terrified standing outside the door, listening to Harry screaming for a reason he didn’t know or understand. When he hadn’t known what was going on or why.

 

“I was thinking…she wasn’t planned, we didn’t know we were getting her, she took us completely by surprise. It’s almost like fate.”

 

“What are you babbling about?” Draco asked. “How strong was that pain potion?” He directed at Max.

 

“It was a strong one, strongest one that I had to hand. He had a gash in his belly.” Max insisted.

 

“I’m being serious.” Harry scowled.

 

“I’m just saying that your track record with naming our children while under the influence of a pain potion is questionable.”

 

“Well the name’s stuck, so deal with it.” Harry huffed.

 

“What have you named her?” Nasta asked with a smile, trying to ignore the bed that was soaked with Harry’s blood and urine as he sat close to his mate and offered him his body to rest against.

 

Harry took the offer and flumped on Nasta’s chest and handed over their newest daughter before he dropped her. The pain potion was making him feel drowsy and floppy.

 

“Caronwyn.” Harry said softly. “It’s almost the year anniversary of her death and we all know how badly it’s been affecting you, Nas. We didn’t plan her, we didn’t know about her, what are the chances that we’d have a baby daughter, who happened to be yours, on almost the year anniversary since you lost your Caronwyn? I think she is trying to get back to you, Nasta. You shared an incredibly strong bond and she wants to come back to you, so she is back with you. Caronwyn Angharad Potter-Delericey. She’s as feisty as a fucking dragon too.” Harry burst out before he yawned and slipped lower on Nasta’s body, placing his head in his lap and closing his eyes. “Baby dragon.” He murmured softly again before he drifted off, the very strong pain potion knocking him out for the count.

 

“He really is hopped up on pain killers.” Max laughed nervously. “He might change his mind when he wakes up.”

 

“How many times has that actually happened?” Draco interjected. “None!”

 

“I was trying to be helpful.” Max hissed.

 

“Lying is not being helpful!”

 

“Stop it.” Nasta ordered them calmly. “We have Harry and a newborn baby to think of now. I made the mistake of sinking into my thoughts and depression after our Lyran was born, I won’t make the same mistake this time. Things can’t carry on as they were before. We almost destroyed our own family… _I_ almost destroyed our family. None of us noticed that Harry was pregnant, none of us clicked, even though the signs were there if we’d just bothered to look, if we’d cared for him more and looked harder! They could have both died last night because we’ve been biting and snapping at one another, because the stress and anger has been clouding our minds.”

 

“So, you’re okay?” Blaise asked carefully.

 

Nasta brushed a dark tuft of hair from a tiny, pale face. He looked up and smiled. “I’m going to be alright. After all…I have my Caronwyn back now. What do I have to be unhappy about?”

 

“You…you don’t mind?” Max couldn’t help but ask.

 

“No. I think it’s a wonderful idea. I loved my Caronwyn. I loved her so much and seeing her, so lifeless and tired, wasting away before me. It hurt me so much, but…” Nasta looked back down at his tiny newborn daughter and he smiled. “I can think of no better way to honour her than to name my newborn daughter after her and my beautiful sister. The dragon I loved so fiercely and passionately and the woman I have always looked up to as my role model, as my everything. I can think of no better name for this amazing, yet terrifying, surprise.”

 

“So, everything’s going to be fine now? No more moping about, no more sitting out on the porch in the snow, no more fighting and biting at one another and we can actually cuddle in bed again? No more lying poker straight like a board with several inches between us all?” Max asked.

 

“No, no more of that.” Nasta said as he rested a hand in Harry’s hair and stroked it softly as he slept on his lap. “On a very subconscious level I think that Harry knew that he was pregnant. He already said that his Dracken side knew and was trying to tell him. That would not have helped his mood and that would have hiked up his stress and his aggravation as he continued to ignore the signs and the warnings from his Dracken, who was trying its best to get out and the stress of holding that back would have pushed Harry to the edge. It’s not surprising that he was snappy and short tempered with everyone. I’ve been the same because of Caronwyn’s death and we’ve all been feeding off of one another. Between the grief and the depression I’ve been feeling and the Dracken raging and railing inside of Harry over this Caronwyn being formed inside him, I’m surprised that we’re all still alive.”

 

That made them all smile and Nasta sighed, kissing the baby in his arms and tucking her blanket more securely around her tiny body.

 

“I think today and yesterday has proved exactly why this cannot happen again.” He breathed softly. “We can move on from this and we need to pay more attention to our beautiful, wonderful submissive and our children. Our family is what matters and I know I’ve been terrible and distant and looking back, after last night, I feel awful about that. I hate myself for letting it get so bad, for letting myself get so bad and for hurting you all so badly. I just want us to move on now.”

 

“Well then, moving on. I can’t fucking wait to introduce Caronwyn to the kids! Wait until those buggers in Hogwarts come home in three weeks to find a new baby! Let’s invite Braiden and our other older kids to dinner and show them their new sister!”

 

“You are having far too much fun with this, Max.” Draco told him.

 

“I agree with Max!” Richard declared. “This is hilarious. I can’t wait to tell Alexander. In fact, I’m going to do that right now.”

 

“Richard.” Ashleigh warned and then when her mate just upped and left she huffed and followed him.

 

“I’ll leave you boys to settle then.” Aneirin laughed and he and the softly smiling Georgio left, after being asked yet again if Harry and the baby would be alright.

 

“They’ll be just fine. Remember to give him those two potions and I’ll be back to see him soon. He didn’t tear any internal organs, the placenta came out whole and I could detect no problems other than the slight infection. The baby is doing wonderful despite none of you knowing about her. She’ll be just fine. Just keep her warm and fed.”

 

The five of them were left alone with their newborn daughter and they took a moment to breathe and take in a moment of silence for it to sink in that Harry had been pregnant for the last five months, that he had given birth last night in their bed, that they now had a newborn daughter named after Nasta’s dead dragon and Nasta’s dead sister.

 

“We’re going to be fine.” Nasta said, finally breaking the silence that had fallen.

 

He carefully manoeuvred Harry off of his lap and got him onto the bed and he stood up, kissing Caronwyn and putting her into Lyran’s bassinet.

He went to their wardrobe and got down a clean set of sheets.

 

“Someone pick Harry up carefully please. We need to change those sheets.”

 

“I’ve got him.” Draco said as he stepped forward and picked Harry up. “I’ll give him a quick wash too, he’s covered in blood and he’s wet himself too.”

 

“Don’t get that wound wet.” Max warned seriously. “It won’t fully close for another few hours and the potion can’t be washed off.”

 

“I’ll help you to make sure that it stays dry.” Blaise said as he tore his eyes away from the baby and followed after Draco. Max stayed to help Nasta remake the bed.

 

“Are you sure everything is fixed?” He couldn’t prevent himself from asking.

 

Nasta smiled softly and pulled him into his arms, kissing his forehead before kissing his lips, slipping in his tongue. Max responded immediately, happily and passionately as he gripped at Nasta and caressed the back of his body, touching as much of him as he could. He couldn’t remember the last time any of them had kissed like this, or even just held one another like this. It felt good. Really, really good.

 

“We’re going to be just fine. As we always are.” Nasta told him with a smile. “We’ve survived almost twenty-two years of mateship. It’s a bit ridiculous of us to throw it all away now, isn’t it?”

 

“Very ridiculous.” Max agreed. “Now let’s clean this bed up, sort out this carpet and sort out our new little Princess. She’s going to need excessive love and care to make up for the five months she was alive and we didn’t know about her.”

 

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack.” Nasta admitted.

 

“Me too.” Max sighed as they worked together to sort out the bed, taking off the bloodied, urine stained, torn up sheets.

 

“Take Caronwyn downstairs and see if she wants another bottle and I’ll burn this bed set and clean this carpet and see if I can clean the mattress or if we need to buy a new one.”

 

Max did as suggested and he smiled as his new daughter wriggled in his arms and let out a soft noise.

 

“It’s alright, Princess. You’re going to like this family. You might not think much of us from your time in the womb, but that’s all behind us now. We’re going to love you so much and your big brothers and sisters will love you too. You have a never ending supply of love and protection, though from what your Mummy is babbling you won’t need that protection, will you baby dragon? Just wait until you meet the family, they’re just going to love you…and how you came into the world.”

 

Max chuckled as he made up a bottle and offered it to Caronwyn. She suckled for a bit and took in another ounce of milk before she fell asleep on the bottle. Max tried to wind her, but she just dribbled in her sleep, so he gave up and left her in the kitchen bassinet as he made up tea for the three of them, and one coffee for Blaise because he was going to need it.

His other dominants wandered down and Max handed out the mugs with a smile, all of them just soaking in the peace and quiet of their house.

 

“So…what the fuck just happened?” He said with a laugh.

 

“I know how you feel.” Blaise said as he gulped down another mouthful of hot coffee. “This time yesterday, we had absolutely no clue Harry was pregnant or that we’d be getting a new daughter today. This is insanity.”

 

“What are we going to tell the kids?” Draco groaned.

 

“We’ll have to tell the older ones the truth. That we weren’t taking proper care of their Mother and as a result we missed a five month pregnancy and their Mother had to birth their new sister in our bed with no supplies. The younger ones, we’ll just tell them that they have a new sister, they should go for that.” Nasta said sadly.

 

They all nodded and it was the strangest thing as they couldn’t keep their eyes off of their newborn daughter. To think that they hadn’t known that she was even there, let alone that she was ready to meet them. They hadn’t been prepared at all for Caronwyn to arrive and now that she was here, right here in front of them, it was a little hard to digest.

 

“We need to set up a second bassinet for her and find some old bodysuits for her to wear until we buy new ones.”

 

“Some of Lyran’s newborn bodysuits might fit her, though she’s much smaller than him, hell I’ll eat my fist if she’s three pounds and he was eight and a half pounds born.” Blaise said.

 

“She’ll have to swim in them for a few days until we get out to buy her some new ones.” Max said with a smile as he sipped at his mug of tea.

 

“Emerus was about the same size. What did we do with his bodysuits?”

 

“Didn’t we donate them?” Nasta asked with a frown. “Or did Harry pack them away up in the attic?”

 

“We’ll ask him when he wakes up, until then, Caronwyn will have to make do with Lyran’s newborn suits. He’s only been out of them for four months, they’re as good as new, really.” Draco replied, sighing at his white tea. “This needs Firewhiskey.”

 

“No, no Firewhiskey. Its early afternoon. Later, when we have the kids back and they’re in bed, then we can have Firewhiskey.” Nasta told them.

 

“You really have had a shock, haven’t you?” Max chuckled.

 

Nasta nodded. “We all have.”

 

“I’m going to invite our kids’ home for dinner. I’ll tell them that we have something to share with them.” Max said with a grin.

 

Max left the kitchen for the living room and Nasta sighed and shook his head. “I can’t believe that this has happened. Poor Harry.”

 

“He’ll be fine once he rests up a little.” Blaise insisted. “He’s a lot stronger than we ever give him credit for, this only proves it. He was pregnant for these last five months and he just carried on and dealt with it. He gave birth alone, with no supplies and he’s fine and he’s alive and he’s going to recover. I swear he’s unkillable. If that scum bucket, Voldemort, couldn’t even do it when he was just a kid, a little baby, then nothing is going to be able to.”

 

They all took a moment to just rest and think as the house was silent around them. It was rare enough that they got a moment to themselves, especially with such strange circumstances as this one.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

It was early evening and they were all settled around the table, Braiden was there with his two mates and their two children. Farren was wrestling his two year old son away from Regan’s hair while his pregnant mate, Georgie chatted to the equally pregnant Ave.

Calix was teasing his younger siblings and everything was all out mayhem.

 

“So what did you need to tell us?” Braiden asked with a smile.

 

“Where’s Mum?” Taren asked looking around.

 

“That’s…that’s sort of what we needed to tell you.” Nasta said softly. That shut all of them up and they looked at them with wide eyes.

 

“Is…is Mum okay?” Leolin asked quietly, his one arm clenching reflexively around the almost four year old sleeping in his arms.

 

“I’m fine.”

 

Nasta spun around and hurried to his submissive. He caught Harry around the waist, supporting him as he hobbled into the kitchen with an arm wrapped around his very sore belly.

 

“You look terrible, Mum!” Tegan gasped. “What happened?”

 

“Nan-nan.” Sinclair burbled with a grin and a drooly mouth.

 

“Farren, you wipe his chin.” Harry ordered as Nasta got him sat down.

 

Farren chuckled and pulled out a cloth and wiped Sinclair’s chin of dribble.

 

“What happened, Mum?” Braiden asked concernedly.

 

Harry sighed and accepted the cup of tea from Max.

 

“I don’t want any of you kids to worry.” He insisted. “We’ve just had a bit of a shock, that’s all.”

 

“You do look bad, Mum.” Eva said worriedly, biting a plump lip.

 

“As it turns out, my hormones after Lyran were…well they were a little more messed up than we first thought.”

 

“What your Mother is trying and failing to tell you is that we were intimate just after Lyran was born and because his hormones were still exceedingly high because of Lyran, your Mum conceived another baby right after.”

 

“But…that would mean that Mum is five months pregnant. Why didn’t you tell us before?” Tegan asked, brushing her shoulder length hair from her hazel-gold eyes.

 

“Because we didn’t know, sweetheart.” Harry sighed. “I look so bad because I gave birth last night. To your baby sister, Caronwyn.”

 

“No way!” Calix burst out. “Really?”

 

Harry smiled, more of a pained grimace really, but he was trying and he really was very sore.

 

“Yeah, really.”

 

“But, wouldn’t your Dracken have known?” Georgie asked worriedly.

 

“It did know, honey, but I’ve been ignoring it, pushing it away, mostly because I was afraid that it was trying to come out to kill the kid who hurt Saeth, but it was trying to tell me something different. I just wasn’t listening. I gave birth without ever knowing that I was pregnant in the first place. I gave birth with no preparation, no supplies, not even any blood.”

 

“How did you heal your caesarean incision?” Braiden asked in concern.

 

“I didn’t. It was open from when I cut myself open until earlier this afternoon, when I pulled down the wards and let your Dads in with a Healer.” 

 

“It was open all night?” Regan gasped.

 

Harry nodded. “I had a small infection, but nothing serious. I have potions to take that’ll clear it up and your sister is fine too. She’s a little small, but she’s perfectly fine and she’s doing well.”

 

“I can’t believe this…I mean, you thought you were infertile after the sextuplets, now you’ve not only had Lyran, but just five months after he was born, you’ve had another baby.” Eva chuckled. “Whose is she, anyway?”

 

“Your Dad, Nasta’s.” Harry said with a smile.

 

“Hold on, let me go and get her so that you can meet her properly.” Max said with a grin as he left the kitchen to pick up the newborn, who was drowning in a blue bodysuit that had been tight on Lyran before he’d been a week old.

 

“Lyran’s too small clothes?” Farren guessed.

 

Harry nodded. “As I said, we weren’t prepared at all. We’ll have to go out and buy a few things. Thankfully Lyran was planned and we have a good stock of nappies and wipes.”

 

That got him a laugh as Caronwyn was passed around and cuddled by her big brothers and sisters.

 

“Why Caronwyn?” Tegan asked.

 

“Your Dad Nasta lost a very precious, much loved friend whom he had known and cared for, for forty years.” Harry explained. “I thought that it would be nice to honour her and to give your Dad Nas someone to remember her by.”

 

Nasta kissed his cheek and held him around the shoulders, murmuring to him in Welsh. Regan started laughing, as their very language affluent child, he understood more than Harry did about what Nasta was saying. Harry had never had an ear, or the tongue, for languages.

 

“What did the little ones think?” Calix asked.

 

“They’re so excited you’d think it was Christmas.” Blaise laughed.

 

Harry smiled. He hadn’t been there when his mates had told their younger children, he’d still been sleeping upstairs, but hearing that his younger ones were excited brought a smile to his face, even if it was a small, tired one.

 

“She’s beautiful.” Boden grinned. “She looks like our missus over there.”

 

Braiden chuckled as he looked at their oldest daughter, her jet black hair tied and clipped up as she played on the kitchen floor with the two year old Sinclair, the almost two year old Tess and the almost two year old Jen.

 

“She really does.” Braiden said with a grin.

 

“So, we have a new sister and you’re going to be okay?” Leolin asked, his dark gold eyes narrowed as he scrutinised every inch of Harry, an absolutely tiny three, almost four, year old being clutched tightly to his chest.

 

“I’m going to be fine. Your Dads’ however might not be, get back to me at the end of the week and we’ll see how many of them are missing limbs.” Harry smiled tiredly.

 

“This has been a massive shock for us.” Draco tried.

 

“Oh? You think _you_ had the massive shock.” Harry huffed. “One minute I’m lying in bed, the next I’m going to get up to go down the stairs for dinner and I go into _labour_!”

 

“That’s why we want to take extra special care of you.” Nasta said softly with a loving smile, kissing the side of Harry’s head. “You had a massive shock and we want to pamper you a bit, especially after giving birth to our little girl.”

 

Harry sighed exasperatedly, but he smiled. How could he argue with that?

 

“Okay, fine. But if you get too overbearing, my claws are coming out.”

 

“Duly noted, love.” Max said happily. “Now, who’s hungry?”

 

Harry couldn’t help but smile as he looked at all his older children around the table, some with their own families now as he watched Braiden canoodle with his mate, Rowan, their new baby Byron clutched safely and securely in his arms.

 

“Do you want to pass him here, love, so you can eat properly?” Boden asked softly.

 

“It’s alright, Bo.” Braiden said with a laugh. “I’m the oldest of thirty-nine now, how many brothers and sisters do you think I’ve had on my lap or in my arms while eating before? Mum taught me how to do it properly.”

 

Harry grinned as he looked down to Caronwyn, tucked into his left arm as he used his right to eat slowly. He liked knowing that just by doing something like this, he had taught his children to be better parents. He winked at Braiden and kept an eye on Leolin purely out of habit. His little Unseelie had flourished in a fully grown man, and a tall one at that. Or at least he was tall to him at his meagre height of five, five. Leolin had grown to be five foot nine and even as he watched, one wing (wrapped around Leolin’s torso under his shirt) fluttered ever so slightly as he talked excitedly to Taren, his arm still wrapped protectively around the child sleeping in the crook of his arm.

 

“Have you told the kids at school?” Farren asked as he wrestled with Sinclair, yet again, over him throwing his chicken at his Granddad Max, who was not retaliating or taking any notice at all because Georgie wanted Sinclair to stop such behaviour and had asked them to please not encourage him. They respected her wishes, so when Sina had a terrible two’s moment, they ignored him and left him to their Farren and Georgie.

 

“No, we didn’t think it was something we could say in an owl and they’re home in a few weeks, so we’ve actually decided to wait.”

 

“I need to be here when you tell them.” Calix laughed. “I want to see their faces.”

 

“Especially Mace.” Regan joined in. “Nothing ever fazes him. He’s like Superman…or James Bond!”

 

 Harry laughed with everyone else, but looked back at Caronwyn as she shifted in his arms. He tucked her blanket more securely around her shoulders and neck and he kissed her rosy cheek.

 

“Oh god, Farren. Take Sinclair and change him, please.” Ave begged. “My sense of smell is heightened at the moment because of this new little one.” She added as she patted her swollen belly.

 

Farren grinned at his little sister and put his knife and fork down, picking up his son.

 

“Come on, Stinky, let’s get you freshened up before you choke the table.”

 

“Did I just hear you call our son names?” Georgie asked sternly.

 

“No, of course not, my love!” Farren said with a wide smile.

 

“You better not have.” Georgie teased.

 

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Farren laughed as he took Sinclair to the downstairs bathroom to change him.

 

Harry smiled as he watched them. He was very proud of his children and he was very pleased with the mates that his children had chosen for themselves. Boden especially was a wonderful person and he worked so hard for both of his mates. Harry strongly approved, which made his Braiden very happy. He was a very happy man, because his children were very happy. It was all he could ask for for them really, as a parent, as their Mother. That they were happy, settled and well cared for and they were for the most part. It made him feel accomplished, it made him feel like a successful parent. He couldn’t ask for any more than that.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Three weeks later, in the last week of June, Harry was snuggled on the settee while his almost five year old sextuplets ran riot. It had been impossible to get them into bed to sleep because they knew that their big brothers and sisters were coming home tonight. And because the sextuplets were running riot, all their other children were up and running riot too. Rosalia was the only one sitting quiet, even Cyneric and Kallan, the usually calm and watchful twins, were screeching excitedly.

The front door opened and Max ushered in ten chatting teenagers who’d just had a several hour train journey home.

 

“Acie!” Eiren rushed out the living room door and went to barrel into his big brother Mace, who dropped his trunk and swept the excited four year old into his arms. “We have spise!”

 

“You have a surprise? Let’s see it then.” Mace answered as he carried Eiren back into the living room and he was immediately swarmed by the younger siblings he hadn’t seen in months.

 

Harry smiled tiredly as he watched all of them get attacked by younger siblings.

 

“Calix!” Mollie cried out and when she saw him and she went to hug him tight.

 

“What are you doing here?” Xabiere asked him.

 

“Can’t I come to see my brothers and sisters? You’re graduated now, Xabe. You’re officially a man and out of Hogwarts.”

 

Xabiere smiled. “It feels good to be starting on this new adventure, but I will be sad to see the back of the castle. It was like a home away from home and I’ll miss it.”

 

“I missed it a lot when I graduated.” Calix said with a reminiscent smile. “But you move onto new things and you replace school with work and the castle with your own home. It’s not so bad.”

 

“There’s no rush.” Harry told his Xabie. “I’d love for you to stay here for as long as you want.”

 

“If you had it your way, you’d have them all still here.” Max said as he threw an arm around Xabiere’s shoulders and kissed his temple.

 

“Dad!” Xabe complained furiously.

 

“What? Can’t I show love to my son? I’m very proud of you!”

 

“Be proud of me without slobbering all over me!” Xabiere scowled.

 

“Oh, I see how it is. Your Mum can kiss you, but I can’t!” Max pouted.

 

“Mum’s, Mum!” Xabiere reasoned. “Only he can kiss me like that.”

 

Harry chuckled and shifted under his blanket.

 

“Are you alright, Mum?” Senna asked with a frown. “You don’t look well.”

 

“We have spise!” Emerus repeated with a bounce.

 

“This is your surprise? Mum being sick?” Mace demanded. “I thought you meant Calix being home! This isn’t a surprise, it’s horrible!”

 

Mollie crawled up next to him and laid her head on his shoulder, placing a tiny, pale hand on his forehead.

 

“You feel really warm, Mum.” She said worriedly.

 

“Because your Dads’ have me wrapped up in my winter pyjamas, under a blanket, in the middle of June. I’m roasting under here, love.”

 

“Don’t you move.” Max warned seriously.

 

“I’m not moving. See, this is me sat here, slowly cooking, because you idiots are being overprotective again.”

 

“Can you blame us?” Max asked darkly.

 

“Have I moved?” Harry demanded. “There is such a thing as killing someone slowly under tender love and care, you know and that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

 

“What’s wrong, Mum?” Mace asked, hauling his sixteen year old sister up and throwing her to the side and taking her seat next to him.

 

“Mace!” Mollie huffed as she slapped his thigh. Mace didn’t even grunt at the slap.

 

He placed his own hand over his forehead and Harry smiled.

 

“I’m fine, your Dads’ are just over reacting, as per usual.”

 

“But what happened?” Saeth asked worriedly, looking pale, drawn and sick himself.

 

“Are _you_ alright, Sae?” Harry asked, equally as worried.

 

“He’s being sick in the mornings.” Ceri tattled immediately. “He wouldn’t go to Madam Pomfrey.”

 

“Why are you being sick?” Harry asked, narrowing his eyes.

 

His mind immediately jumped to pregnancy after his own surprise birth and he looked critically at Saeth’s belly under his tee-shirt. He didn’t know if he was being paranoid and seeing things, but he was looking a little more rounded than usual and Harry’s heart missed a beat. If his baby was pregnant by that filth then it needed to be sorted, because it meant his little Saeth was a submissive like they suspected, but it would also mean that the filth who’d been harassing him had been a dominant. It would cause all sorts of complications with Saeth’s Dracken side and with the baby and the Counsel too. It needed to be sorted.

 

“I just…I have nightmares about _him_ , Mum and they…I feel sick when I wake up.” Saeth admitted quietly. “Maybe this isn’t the best place for this.” He added with a pointed look to the several curious, upturned faces of the younger children.

 

“Once they’ve gone to bed, then.” Harry said seriously.

 

“What’s making you ill, Mum?” Serra asked with a frown.

 

“Nothing, love, honestly. But you know I had Lyran a little while back?” Harry asked and Calix cackled from his seat. Harry gave him the look that he deserved.

 

“Yeah, is he okay?” Ethan asked concernedly.

 

“He’s absolutely fine, he’s fine.” Harry assured quickly. “He’s upstairs asleep. But you know that it takes a while for the hormones to settle down after giving birth?”

 

“Yeah.” Xabe said slowly with incomprehension.

 

“Well, your Dads’ and I, we were intimate just after Lyran was born.”

 

There was a chorus of ‘ahs’ and ‘ews’ at that as all his children pulled faces and covered their ears in disgust. Harry rolled his eyes and waited for them to settle down.

 

“I fell pregnant again without a heat period because my hormones were still very high after just giving birth.” He told them once he had their attention again.

 

“Really?” Jason asked excitedly.

 

“Did…is the baby okay?” Xabiere asked, jumping to the worst conclusion because Harry looked so bad.

 

Harry smiled. “She’s absolutely fine. You have a new sister.”

 

“When will you have her?” Serra asked with a grin.

 

Harry laughed. “I already have, had her. She was born on the twenty-ninth of May. Her name is Caronwyn.”

 

“Like Dad Nasta’s dragon?” Mollie asked.

 

Harry nodded.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us that you were having a new baby?” Xabiere asked. “We were all here until we went back to Hogwarts in January and Mace didn’t come back until it was almost February.”

 

“Mummy didn’t know about the baby.” Rosalia told them, pushing her blonde hair out of her blue eyes. “The baby was a surprise.”

 

“That’s what you meant!” Mace exclaimed to Eiren, who nodded with a grin.

 

“I had no clue that I was pregnant and I didn’t know about Caronwyn until I went into labour on the twenty-ninth. It was a massive shock to me and your Dads’, but Caronwyn is doing very well now.”

 

“And you’re going to be okay?”

 

“I’m going to be fine.” Harry insisted. “I’ve been very well looked after and the Healer has come to see me several times now since I gave birth, just to make sure. I’m going to be just fine, so I don’t want any of you to worry. Me and Caronwyn are going to be fine.”

 

“That’s good to know. So, where is Caronwyn?”

 

“Right here.” Nasta said as he brought the kids attention to him with the tiny little girl in his arms in a pale pink and white sleepsuit.

 

“Ooo, I want to see.” Mollie said as she rushed to see her new sister.

 

“She’s gorgeous.” Mace said as he had the advantage of being taller than Nasta and thus being able to look down into his arms over everyone else’s heads.

 

“Pick me up so I can see!” Serra demanded of Mace and with a chuckle he did as he was asked, hefting the thirteen year old up to see their new baby sister.

 

“Me too, Mace!” Senna complained.

 

Mace sighed, but he shifted Serra to his other arm and then used his free arm to pick up Senna.

 

“Be careful, Mace.” Harry fretted. “Don’t lift them both together.”

 

“It’s okay, Mum. Honestly, these two weigh the same as a blade of grass.” Mace said as he proved how very easy he found lifting them by using the twins as he usually used his dumbbells.

 

Harry rolled his eyes, but he let out a breath and relaxed back into the settee. He shifted his legs and Max and Nasta’s heads both snapped over to him.

 

“I’m not getting up.” He told them exasperatedly.

 

He hoped that this behaviour didn’t last much longer. It had been three weeks and he was still confined to the settee and he still wasn’t allowed to go up or down the stairs. Though of course there were perks, like Nasta hand feeding him little chunks of chocolate and having them all at his continuous beck and call.

If he called out for one of them, they dropped what they were doing and immediately came to attend him, because they knew that if they didn’t, he’d just say fuck it and he’d get up and get what he wanted himself.

It was annoying, but after the last several months where they hadn’t been intimate or loving towards one another at all, forcing them to carry him everywhere, demanding kisses and being hand fed his favourite treats more than made up for being confined to the settee, though the novelty was fast wearing off.

He winked at his kids who giggled as he slipped a foot out of the blanket and Ellette giggled and clapped her tiny hands together.

 

“What are you doing?” Nasta asked with narrowed eyes.

 

“Nothing.” Harry said innocently.

 

“I know that tone.” Max said. “That’s the, I’m doing something naughty that my amazing, loving mates wouldn’t like, tone.”

 

Harry couldn’t help laughing.

 

“Mummy being naughty.” Errai cooed.

 

“Shhh.” Harry said with a chuckle.

 

Nasta handed the baby over and came to tuck him back in, pulling the blanket out and re-tucking his foot back under.

 

“You know the price for tucking me in!” Harry sniffed.

 

Nasta smiled and bent down, kissing his mouth softly.

 

“So, you’re all okay now?” Xabiere asked. “I know things were…difficult, over Christmas.”

 

“We’re fine.” Nasta said with a smile. “Everything is fine and we’ll prove it in the coming months. We had a bit of a rough patch, but that’s all over and it’s behind us now.”

 

“It better stay behind us too.” Max grumbled. “Who wants tea?”

 

“I need a refill.” Harry told him.

 

“I’m going to get these little ones to bed. Some of them look ready to drop.” Nasta said.

 

“I’ll help.” Calix said as he stood up and cracked his back.

 

“You’re getting old.” Ethan laughed.

 

“Brat.” Calix teased good naturedly.

 

Harry had Caronwyn back in his arms and he cuddled with her as his family moved around him, laughing, joking and teasing. All the stress and tension had evaporated, but it was still there, lingering like a heavy cloud at the back of their minds. They couldn’t just forget the last year of their lives. It was much better than it had been, but as Harry watched the kids being herded up the stairs to bed while his older kids shucked their robes and shoes and rushed around helping their Dad Max with the tea and drinks, he couldn’t help but remember the pain of the last several months of their lives.

He smiled when Mollie handed him a cup of honey tea though and he got Saeth sitting next to him so that he could keep an eye on his poor boy. They needed to have that conversation soon, that was going to be painful too, but it needed to be done as his boy sat morosely on the settee and quietly stared at the same spot for several minutes.

 

“How are things going with your counsellor, Sae?” He asked lightly.

 

Saeth startled and looked at him, before biting a lip and nodding. “Good. She’s really nice and I like talking to her.”

 

“Do you feel better for having talked to her?” Harry asked.

 

Saeth nodded. “Yes, I do, but I’m still having these nightmares. I can’t stop having them.”

 

Harry nodded. “When I was seeing a Mind Healer several years ago, it actually triggered my nightmares, but you know, once I sorted through them all and talked it all out I felt much better. Eventually the nightmares got less and less until I woke up one morning and realised that I hadn’t had a nightmare in months. Things will get better, love. I promise that they will.”

 

Saeth stayed quiet and cuddled into his side. Harry wrapped an arm around him and played with his hair, kissing his temple before resting his cheek on top of Saeth’s head.

 

“I’m sorry that this happened to you, baby. I’m sorry that we couldn’t protect you or help you when you needed us to, but I swear it will never happen again and we’ll do whatever it takes to help you. We love you, Saeth and we always will, no matter what happens.”

 

“Even…even if things get worse?” Saeth whispered.

 

“Even if they get worse. We’re your parents, Saeth and we’ll always have your back and we’ll always stand by you. If things get worse, then they get worse, but we’ll all help you through it. You have brothers and sisters who would do anything for you too. We want to help you and get you through this, but you need to talk to us, sweetheart. We’re not mind readers…well, I have long since suspected your Dad Draco of being able to read minds, but he just gives me that look of his when I ask him.”

 

That got him a small chuckle and he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he held Sae to him.

 

“Things will get better, love. I promise. You have your family, Saeth. A family who love you very, very much and only want what is best for you. Trust us and we’ll help you through this.”

 

Saeth remained quiet and Harry didn’t push or press him. He trusted Saeth and he knew that when he felt ready, he’d come to him, but until then, Harry would make absolutely sure that he remained open and accessible to his son, so that he could come to him at any time when he was good and ready.

His hurting son went to bed soon after that without saying another word and Harry sighed, checking on Caronwyn in the crook of his arm. The beast responsible for Sae’s situation might have been punished and removed from Saeth’s environment, but his son was still affected and far from fine.

Harry hoped that the counselling eventually helped Saeth as it had done for him when he’d been going through it because of the Dursleys.

His kids didn’t know about that part of his life, or if they did, they didn’t let on. He suspected that his older kids knew, they had laptops and knew how to Google and his name was linked to the Dursleys thanks to the court case and the Muggle media. All they’d have to do was Google him and they’d find the old newspaper reports and they all knew that he’d been raised in the Muggle world and hadn’t known that he was a wizard until he was eleven and about to go off to Hogwarts. 

 

“You look lost, are you okay? Has the pain potion worn off?” Max asked curiously.

 

“No, I’m pain free.” Harry sighed. “I’m worried about our Saeth.”

 

“Did you notice that he seems a little more…pregnant, too?”

 

Harry groaned. “Yes, I noticed. We’re going to have to speak to him about that. If he is pregnant then he needs help and our support, as well as the help of a medical professional.”

 

Max nodded. “We’ll see now. They’re home for the summer, you never know, he might come to us himself.”

 

“Or he might not be pregnant.” Nasta butted in.

 

“You don’t think so?” Harry asked.

 

“Xabiere has just told me that Saeth has been layering up. Sae seems to think that the more clothes he has on, the less chance anyone has of touching him.”

 

“Or he’s layering up to try and disguise a baby bump.” Draco added with a sigh.

 

Harry bit his lip. “We need to talk to his counsellor and to Saeth. Whether he’s pregnant and trying to hide it, or layering up so no one can touch him skin to skin, I don’t like it.”

 

“We’ll get it sorted.” Nasta told him seriously. “We’ll look after him, but for now. Let him sleep under his own roof and let’s get you two to bed too.”

 

Harry looked down at Caronwyn and he smiled. He was worried about Saeth, but he also trusted in his ability as a Mother and his mates as Fathers’ to work this out and sort it for their son. Now that they had him home, they could assess and sort it more easily than when he was at school, relying on his brothers and sisters to send owls about how he was doing and begging the teachers to keep an eye on him.

Harry was carried to bed by Blaise after saying goodnight to his teenagers as they ate a late dinner and promising to see them in the morning. He and Blaise put Caronwyn to bed and then Blaise tucked him up, slipping under the covers with him.

 

“Don’t you want to stay up for longer?” Harry asked with a yawn. “You know I’ll be asleep within minutes, the pain potions still make me drowsy.”

 

“No, I could do with an early night. I’m on the graveyard shift tonight. I’ll be up with Lyran and Caronwyn, so an early night will do me good. Plus I get to hold your luscious body without anyone muscling me out of the way.” Blaise purred as he slipped both arms around him and nuzzled at his neck.

 

Harry chuckled and turned around in Blaise’s arms and curled up against his chest.

 

“Watch your scar.” Blaise cautioned him.

 

“It’s alright. It doesn’t hurt. The pain potion will be effective for another several hours at least. I’ll be fast asleep by then.” Harry replied as he snuggled in happily.

 

“Get some sleep then. You need to recover.”

 

Harry hummed. “I still can’t believe I had her.”

 

“I still can’t believe you named her after a dead dragon.”

 

“Nasta loved that dragon and I love Nasta. Besides the Dragon handlers named Caronwyn and it really is a beautiful name. It means beautiful, loved one and really, isn’t our daughter beautiful and loved?”

 

“She is. It’s a lovely name.”

 

They fell silent and Harry yawned against Blaise’s chest. He struggled to keep his eyes open and finally just gave in and kept them closed as Blaise touched and rubbed at his back. He didn’t remember when exactly he fell asleep, but one moment he was awake and the next he was fast asleep.

He’d sort out his family problems tomorrow, but until then he really needed some sleep and with him going to sleep so early and with Blaise being on the baby night shift, he was guaranteed to get it. His mates really were being incredibly overprotective of him, and overbearing about it too, but it was a damn sight better than the previous several months and he would take anything, even this frustrating mollycoddling, over the stress and tension of before any day. At least no one was biting someone else’s head off, or throwing a punch at them, anymore. They could all be thankful for that.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was planted into my head by someone on my Facebook page who asked after Caronwyn in my baby list. I started it and then I couldn’t stop, so that’s why we have this chapter so soon after I started it.
> 
> A lot of you lovelies have been asking after the list of Grandbabies, that is on the Rise of the Drackens Wikia page, found here: riseofthedrackens.wikia.com/wiki/Home  
> There is a LOT of information on this page lovelies, including stuff that I haven’t even written into the story yet and behind the scenes history that has no place in the story, but is interesting all the same.  
> Anyway, I think that’s all of it, thank you for reading lovelies, I’ll see you soon as I’m almost done with chapter 98, but until then enjoy this chapter and the information on the Wikia,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	47. A Not so Scary Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in October 2005
> 
>  
> 
> Braiden – 8
> 
> Quintuplets – 7 (Leolin on par with 4)
> 
> Eva and Ave – 6
> 
> Taren – 5, 8 months
> 
> Lai – 5
> 
> Xabiere – 3
> 
> Mace and Evie – 2, 11 months
> 
> Mollie – 2, 6 months
> 
> Quadruplets – 19 months

 

 

A Not so Scary Party

 

Max was in his creative element as he applied fake blood to Braiden’s little chin. His oldest son could barely keep still in his excitement and he kept bouncing, causing Max to blob fake blood over his neck and up his cheek with the applicator sponge, which he then had to wipe off, leaving behind faint pinking stains.

 

“Come on, love. Stand still.” He chided with a grin.

 

“I can’t, Dad! This is the first Halloween party we’ve ever had!”

 

Max smiled sadly and he finished doing Braiden’s make-up and straightened his cape. The reason they’d never had a Halloween party before had been because Harry didn’t celebrate Halloween. Both of his parents had been murdered on Halloween night and his life had changed drastically this night twenty-four years ago. His beautiful submissive mate had spent the next fifteen years being abused, neglected and almost tortured by those who were supposed to have loved and cared for him. Now at twenty-five, Harry still took the time to remember his parents. Max understood his need to do so. He couldn’t imagine never having known his Mum or his Dads, so he did his best to support Harry, even if it was just keeping the kids busy so that he could reflect on his own in peace.

 

“Is Mum going to be okay?” Farren asked concernedly.

 

“He’s alright.” Max insisted. “He’s going to go to sleep and we’ll see him in the morning.”

 

“What if we’re too loud or he needs a drink?” Calix asked as he looked up at the ceiling.

 

Max laughed. “The bedroom is warded so he won’t be able to hear a thing and he has a jug of pumpkin juice with him. Your Mum is going to be just fine. Just enjoy yourselves. He tells you every year to enjoy yourselves, so do as your Mother says, he knows best.”

 

“Are we all done in here?” Blaise poked his head in to look at them. He had their two year old little girl, Mollie, jutted on his hip sucking on a biscuit. Her ripped and fake blooded dress was already stained with jam.

 

“Have you finished the decorations, can we see?” Ave asked excitedly, flapping her arms, making the bat wings she was wearing stretch out menacingly.

 

“We’ve finished, come on.”

 

Blaise held his hand out for Ave and she latched on and skipped next to him as he led them out of the downstairs bathroom and into the living room, the double doors thrown open to link both the living room to the much larger family room.

 

Max whistled lowly. “You outdid yourselves.” He said with a chuckle.

 

The two rooms were decorated lavishly and way over the top with lots of black and orange, dark purple and green. One of his old cauldrons was filled with goopy, lumpy ‘blood’ that was made from flour, syrup and food colouring, there were wrapped presents hidden within it for the children to reach in and find. There were, incredibly lifelike, bats hanging from the ceiling that would flap their wings now and then and screech and the lights had been dimmed slightly, making the edges of the room harder to see, which was perfect as there was what looked like real cobwebs dangling from the ceiling, stretching the span of the wall, all the way to the floor, making thick webs in the top and bottom corners of each room. In one there was a thick legged, hairy, swollen spider that reared up and bared two shiny pincers and clicked angrily at regular intervals.

 

“That’s disgusting!” Eva cried. “Daddy, make it stop!”

 

“It’s not real, Eva.” Nasta assured her. “That’s your Mother’s work. He spent a lot of time making, painting and charming it himself last week.”

 

“It’s horrible.”

 

“You are such a girly-girl.” Max teased, hefting his daughter up and dangling her over his shoulder, the skirt of her ‘mad princess’ dress falling down and revealing the seat of her black and green striped tights.

 

“Nuh-uh!” Eva denied. “Braiden doesn’t like spiders either. Remember he fell off his chair and spilt his drink over Granddad Myron when he saw the spider on the wall.”

 

“It startled me, that’s all!” Braiden tried to refute.

 

“No, you were scared!”

 

“Stop it the both of you and have a biscuit.” Blaise insisted, handing out two biscuits, one orange and in the shape of a pumpkin and the other white in the shape of a Muggle ghost.

 

“These are Mum’s biscuits!” Braiden declared happily after taking a bite.

 

“He made a massive batch last night.” Max said with a smile as there was a sudden rush for the serving plate of biscuits. He righted Eva and put her on the floor so that she wouldn’t choke on her biscuit and watched adoringly as she rushed off.

 

“He’s not going to be here tonight, but he wanted to make sure that you all knew that he does care about you and he is sort of here in everything that he’s done for your party.” Nasta told the kids as they all grabbed a biscuit each.

 

“Does…does he get very upset?” Calix asked with a worried frown.

 

“Not overly much, love. He’ll just be sitting up and looking through old photos. You’ve all seen them before. He doesn’t remember much, but he likes thinking about what he does remember and what he does know. It makes him feel better.” Nasta explained. “Now. We have no less than nine music CDs that you kids have made. Your Dad Blaise has put them into a random order and they will be played in that order, okay?”

 

The kids all nodded, still munching through their biscuits.

 

“Look who’s all dressed up and ready for their first Halloween party.”

 

Max looked over to Draco walking in a quartet of ‘scary’ black cats who were crawling into the room in front of him. Their nineteen month old quadruplets Ceri, Jason, Ethan and Saeth looked adorable and Max couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out. The four were only allowed to stay at the party for an hour before they had to be tucked up into bed, but none of them had felt right denying them their first taste of Halloween, they’d only been seven months old last Halloween and they’d spent it sleeping.

The quadruplets were their youngest children at nineteen months and Harry had yet to have a heat period since birthing them, but as he’d given birth to quadruplets, they had expected the very welcome break.

 

“Oh my little kittens!” Max cooed. “You look adorable!”

 

“Dada Ma!” Ceri, the oldest and most forward of the four, reared back on his knees and lifted his arms up.

 

Max stooped down and hefted his son up, kissing his little mouth, making sure not to smear the little pink painted nose or the black lines meant to be whiskers.

 

“You are an adorable little kitten, yes you are!” Max cooed as he tickled a little belly wrapped in a black cat onesie, complete with ‘paws’ and an eared hood.

 

“Dad, can I hold one of the babies?” Tegan asked.

 

“Of course, just be careful with them.” Nasta encouraged as the seven year old Tegan hefted up one of her baby brothers.

 

“He’s getting heavy.” She complained as she heaved the little lump dressed as a cat over her shoulder with a frown.

 

“That’s because he’s your Dad Max’s.” Blaise snorted. “His babies put on more weight more quickly than the others.”

 

Max put Ceri back down when he squirmed and kicked out before he flicked the back of Blaise’s head before pulling him into a deep kiss amid squeals and groans of disgust. The two of them laughed, though Max’s eyes widened when Blaise licked his lips slowly and suggestively, making sure that he was watching first.

 

“You are getting it tonight, my love.” He bent to whisper into Blaise’s ear.

 

Blaise only laughed and danced away from him, setting out more snacks and drinks on the table, all clearly labelled ready for their guests.

 

“Daddy!”

 

“Oh there is my sweet little honey! How are you baby girl?”

 

“Don’t call me that!” Lai demanded furiously.

 

“Sorry, sweetness.”

 

“Don’t call me that either! I’m not sweet! I am not honey! Honey is food for _bees_!”

 

Max laughed deeply and kissed the pale cheek of their tenth child.

 

“Go and grab a biscuit, baby.” He said, putting Lai back on the floor.

 

The five year old ran off to the table and snatched a biscuit and Max shook his head at the costumed horde of kids running around.

A little kitten crawled past his feet and he couldn’t help cooing as he bent down to snatch Saeth from the floor.

Their youngest little boy screeched in delight as Max hefted him up.

 

“Hello?” Someone called out. “Your door was open?”

 

“Come on in, Rachel!” Max called out as a woman poked her head into the living room with two little ghouls attached to her hands.

 

She laughed. “This is amazing! You guys are outdoing yourselves.”

 

“This is nothing.” Max insisted. At least not to a wizard that was, but all of their neighbours were Muggle. Most of their neighbours were Muggles, he corrected. There was a new family on the other side of the neighbourhood who were magical. They hadn’t had much contact with them yet.

 

“Hey there Joseph, Jake. Why don’t you two go through to the fun room?” Max insisted as he tried to hold onto his wriggling kitten. “All the kids are in there…well, most of them are.” Max corrected as four little ones came toddling into the room, chasing a black balloon covered in cobwebs.

 

“This one is…Saeth? Yes?” Rachel asked as she wiggled her fingers at the nineteen month old in Max’s arms.

 

“Yep, here, can you hold him a minute? I’ve got to go and stop my daughters from murdering one another.” Max handed Saeth over and dashed to Eva and Ave, who’d got her hands on one of her tennis rackets and was aiming a blow at Eva’s body.

 

Max snatched the racket and hefted Ave up with his other arm, taking her into the kitchen for a time out.

 

“She called me stupid!” Ave insisted to him angrily as she tried to break his hold on her body.

 

“I don’t care what Eva called you, Ave, you do not try to hit her, especially not with a tennis racket!” Max told his six year old daughter seriously. “You stay here for six minutes.”

 

Max busied himself with making and preparing the last of the sandwiches and snacks as more neighbours and their children arrived. They’d invited everyone from their neighbourhood and all of the children and their siblings from their children’s classes. Not all of them were going to come, but still, they were going to be pretty busy and their house full to bursting tonight.

 

“Daddy Max!”

 

“What do you want, Taren?” Max asked.

 

“This is my friend, Brody!” Taren introduced. “He plays with me at school. I told you my Dad was a giant, Brody!”

 

Max laughed as he looked down at the little five year olds. Brody was gaping at him through wide brown eyes and Max hunched down and held out two biscuits.

 

“Here you go boys. Go and play.”

 

Taren giggled and ran back into the other room, holding hands with and tugging Brody after him.

 

Max went to Ave and he finished off her time out and sent her on her way sans tennis racket.

 

“No more hitting and you leave your sister alone!” He called out after her bobbing chestnut curls.

 

“How are you doing?” Nasta asked.

 

Max huffed and dragged Nasta into a kiss.

 

“There are too many knee high munchkins running around and half of them are ours!”

 

“We haven’t had any more in a while.” Nasta said.

 

“Am I the only one who’s thinking that we’re overdue for some more little hell raisers?”

 

“No. If Harry’s behaviour is any indication he’ll be having a heat period soon.” Nasta answered.

 

“A dry heat or two and then pregnant for the New Year and a new baby for Spring.” Max grinned.

 

“I’ve enjoyed the break while we had it and I know that Harry has too.”

 

Max nodded. “We all have, especially with our four boys still being so little, but even they’re starting to get up on their feet more and they’re getting better with their words.”

 

“Da. Bickit.”

 

The two of them turned to smile at Leolin, who had wanted to be a butterfly for the party. They’d told him that Halloween was for scary things and that butterflies weren’t scary, but their almost eight year old son hadn’t cared. He’d been stubborn and adamant that he would be a butterfly, so what else could they do? Naturally, they’d dressed him up as a butterfly.

 

“You want a biscuit? What do you say?” Max encouraged.

 

“Pease!” Leolin insisted, his bright gold eyes massively wide and pleading.

 

Nasta chuckled and picked up a special biscuit that Harry had made just for Leolin. It was in the shape of a butterfly and Leolin screeched so happily when he saw it, reaching out with both of his hands to take it.

 

“Thankies!” He said before trotting off, his biscuit clutched in his little hands.

 

Max chuckled. “I love that kid so much.” He told Nasta. “We should make another one.”

 

“I don’t think Harry would agree with you. Remember Leolin after his birth? All the dangers and hospital visits over the years. All the near misses and the times we’ve almost lost him? No, I think Leolin will be our only Faerie child and sometimes, I fervently hope that he is.” Nasta said sadly.

 

Max groaned. “I suppose you have a point. I guess we just have to enjoy him while he’s this little and this cute. How was Harry? You saw him last.”

 

“He’s fine. He’s sat in bed with his photo albums. You and Draco will have a fit though, he took some biscuits up with him.” Nasta said with a grin.

 

“If I find a single crumb in that bed…” Max mock threatened. “You know I can’t sleep if there’s a single crumb on the sheets.”

 

“I know, Princess. I’ll sort it out when we go up to bed, I promise.” Nasta laughed, slipping his arms around Max’s waist and kissing the underside of his jaw.

 

“First Blaise, now you. I swear you all want a piece of me tonight.”

 

“We always want a piece of you.” Nasta said quietly before groping Max’s bum. “This piece.”

 

Max laughed as Nasta winked at him and went into the family room. He sorted out the rest of the food and carried the plates and bowls into the family room and he caught Blaise in a corner and snogged him.

 

“You pushed me into one of those gross cobwebs of Harry’s!” He complained, shivering and brushing himself down self-consciously.

 

“They’re not real.” Max insisted, even as he helped Blaise brush away the fake strands of web.

 

“That doesn’t mean that I want them on me.”

 

“Sorry, love. Come here.”

 

Max cuddled Blaise to make him feel better, kissing his forehead while one hand pushed through the long, layered black hair.

 

“Daddy! Calix put snot on me!” A five year old tearful Lai interrupted, holding out a tiny, pale arm.

 

“Calix!” Max called out angrily, leaving Blaise to take Lai to the bathroom to wash the skinny little arm and hand while he stalked down Calix, who was in the process of tricking a three year old Xabiere, dressed as a dragon which had amused them to no end, into handing over his little dinosaur toy.

 

“Stop what you’re doing.” He ordered.

 

“Daddy, I just….”

 

“No. I saw what you were doing to your brother and I know what you did to Lai. Corner in the kitchen, now. Seven minutes.”

 

“It was an accident! I didn’t mean to sneeze on Lay-lay!”

 

“And taking Xabiere’s toy?”

 

Calix scowled. “I like dinosaurs.”

 

“That doesn’t mean you take Xabiere’s toys from him. Corner, now Calix.”

 

Calix stomped off and Max pointed him out to Nasta, who nodded and followed him. Max hunched down and held Xabiere to his chest. He kissed his three year old son and made sure that he was alright.

 

“Callie was taking Saur from me.” Xabie sniffled.

 

“I saw him trying to take your dinosaur.” Max said softly. “If he, or anyone, tries to take it again then you come right to me or any of us.”

 

“‘Kay, Daddy.” Xabiere rubbed his eyes and Max dried his face with the palm of his hand and sent his three year old waddling off in his dragon costume, his tail dragging behind him.

 

“You have your hands full.” A man laughed.

 

Max stood up and shook his head, greeting the man with a strong handshake and a grin.

 

“Tell me about it. Sometimes I think eighteen children is far too much…other times I wake up and I want more and chide myself that eighteen is nowhere near enough. I’m Max, welcome.”

 

“I’m John. I think my kid’s in the class of one of yours or something, I don’t know, I wasn’t listening when my Wife told me I had to bring Lori here.”

 

Max laughed. “Yeah, Lori is in class with our oldest girl, Tegan.”

 

“You said you had eighteen?” John whistled. “Do you have a harem of women or something?”

 

“Something like that. There are five of us, but we’re all men.” Max said without shame. “We use surrogates to get our children, but we’re all they’ve ever known. The surrogate has no legal claim or genetic tie to any of them.”

 

John had gone pale at Max’s words. “I…you’re all men?”

 

“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” Max asked, twisting slightly and he saw John’s eyes flick to his bulging biceps.

 

“No. No, my… my Wife’s sister has a friend who’s in a relationship with another woman, but five of you? Really?”

 

“Yeah. Me and Nasta, Blaise, Draco and Harry.”

 

Nasta came over, almost as tall as he was, just as muscled, and they both towered over poor John.

 

“Sorry to interrupt, but what did you do with those fruit skewers, Max? I can’t find them.” Nasta asked.

 

“They’re in the fridge, love.” Max told him.

 

“I’ve looked in the fridge, they’re not there.”

 

“I’m telling you I put them in the damn fridge.”

 

Nasta scoffed and went back into the kitchen to find the spooky fruit skewers he’d made using honeydew melon and grapes shaped into severed fingers.

 

“Nasta is health crazy.” He told John. “The only way we could convince him to allow so many sweets, chocolate and cakes in one room with the children was to balance it out with fruit.”

 

“He…he’s nearly the same size as you.” John said.

 

Max laughed. “Not all gay couples are big muscle guys paired with little twinks. Harry’s the shortest and he’s five foot five, but Nas is six foot six, Draco is six foot five and Blaise is six foot three.”

 

“So…so Harry’s the guy that…uh…never mind.”

 

Max laughed loudly. “No. No definitely not. That’s a common misconception, that the littlest guy is the one always receiving or he’s the only one who receives. We all give and receive in equal measure and it’s amazing.” Max winked at the poor red faced man.

 

“Dada!” Mace came pelting over to him and Max bent and scooped him up, holding the almost three year old tightly.

 

“What’s happened, Mace?” He asked, looking his child over and subtly sniffing him for injury.

 

“Scary.” Mace sniffled.

 

“What’s scary?” Max asked, settling his little boy on his arm and feeling little arms wrapped around his neck as Mace burrowed in.

 

Mace turned and pointed to the spider in the corner and Max sighed. Harry had told them that it was based off of a real Acromantula, one of the ones he had ran into in the forest of Hogwarts when he’d been just twelve. Really his submissive had been adorably dense and had had a death wish as a child.    

 

“It’s not real, Mace. Your Mum made it for you.”

 

“I want Mummy.”

 

“He’s upstairs, love. He doesn’t like Halloween. How about I get you a lollipop instead?”

 

Mace considered him for a moment before he nodded.

 

“Blaise! One lollipop for Mace!” He called out over the music. It helped that he could see over the heads of every single person there, especially as most of them were children down by his knees somewhere.

 

“What happened?” Blaise asked, coming over with the large bucket of chocolate lollipops, as Nasta would absolutely not allow the boiled sugar lollies to be handed out.

 

“He caught sight of the spider.”

 

“I told Harry that it was too realistic for a kids’ party.” Blaise grumbled as he unwrapped the lolly and handed it to Mace, who jammed it right into his mouth.

 

“Can I have a lolly too?” A small little girl asked. She wasn’t one of their own, but she smiled sweetly, which was at odds as she was dressed as a little devil.

 

“Of course you can.” Max said brightly.

 

Blaise unwrapped the lolly and handed it to the little girl, putting the foil back into the bucket. The girl giggled and ran off.

Max shifted Mace’s weight and pulled Blaise into a kiss.

 

“Have the quads gone to bed?” He asked him.

 

Blaise nodded. “Yeah. Draco’s taken them up. He’s going to look in on Harry too.”

 

“We’re going to get going. Wonderful party.” One of their neighbours told them, holding a half asleep little girl in her arms.

 

“Thanks for coming, Charlene.” Max said with a smile, holding a hand out for her to shake. “I hope Gemma enjoyed herself.”

 

“Oh, she more than did. She’s barely hanging on.” Charlene laughed looking at her daughter. “Thanks for helping me and Darren to get her to sleep tonight.”

 

“Our pleasure.” Blaise said with a smile. “Don’t forget to grab a party bag on the way out, they’re by the door.”

 

Charlene nodded with a smile and she made her way carefully through the running, laughing mass of children with her daughter, Gemma, sleeping on her shoulder.

A balloon popped when an older boy tripped and fell on it and Mace flinched and several children cried out in surprise.

 

“It was just a balloon, Mace. Come on, you’re alright.” Max soothed gently.

 

Mace nodded and he yawned. “I’m tired, Dada.”

 

“It is getting a bit late.”

 

“Pass him here, I’ll take him, Evie and Mollie up to bed.”

 

“Where’s Leolin?”

 

Blaise looked around as Max was doing and their heart’s missed a beat when they didn’t immediately see their Faerie son.

 

“Nasta! Leolin?” Max called out.

 

Nasta smiled and lifted the edge of the tablecloth he was stood beside and a curled up little boy in a butterfly costume was sleeping underneath it with three others, none of them theirs. The two of them let out relieved sighs.

 

“Right, come on, Mace. Let’s get you into your nice pyjamas and into bed.”

 

“Story?” Mace asked, even as he yawned widely.

 

“Sure, how about one about pirates?” Blaise asked.

 

Mace’s eyes widened. “Yes! Yes, Dada Blay! Piates! Do they have a parrot?”

 

“What sort of question is that?” Blaise teased. “Of course the pirates have a parrot!”

 

Mace giggled and wrapped around Blaise’s neck tightly. “Vee-vee! Story!” Mace called out to his twin.

 

Blaise stooped and picked up the green faced zombie that ran at him. “Come on, Evie, Mollie. We need to get you three washed and into bed with a pirate story.”

 

“Piates!” Evie cheered. “Do they have a big ship and teasure?”

 

“They have an absolutely ginormous ship and lots and lots of treasure!” Blaise told them. “Mollie! Come on, sweetheart.”

 

Their two and a half year old miracle girl wobbled her way over to Blaise and held her hands up, her blood stained gown was covered in smeared chocolate, along with her face, there was jam, crumbs and there was even a wet, pale orange stain from pumpkin juice.

 

“Want Pincess story.” Mollie insisted.

 

“How about the pirates take a Princess hostage and she escapes to become a mermaid?” Blaise compromised.

 

Mollie cheered and Blaise picked her up and hefted the three, two year olds into his arms with a groan. He murmured to them a little more as he left the room to go up the stairs with them to get them ready for bed.

 

Max shook his head and laughed. “Those two are obsessed with pirates and Mollie has to have a Princess in everything.”

 

John remained quiet, curled away from Max as if he were contagious. Max chose to ignore him and his silence and he instead went over to Nasta and subtly brushed his hand over the crotch of his jeans. Nasta growled lowly.

 

“Be very, very careful.” Nasta warned him under his breath. “You might just find yourself waylaid on the way to the bedroom and bent over one of the guest beds.”

 

“Tease.” Max murmured, bending forward to grab a kiss.

 

Nasta chuckled. “I’m not a tease, _Caru._ I fully intend to follow through with my words.”

 

Max groaned and squeezed himself through his trousers.

 

“You really are a tease.”

 

Nasta laughed deeply. “You’re too easy to wind up.”

 

“I might repay you in kind one day soon!”

 

“You already tried that, Max. It backfired on you.” Nasta winked at him and left Max with a tingle running through his groin and a groan falling from his lips.

 

“It’s been two days! You can’t leave me for longer than two days!” He complained.

 

“Are you really talking about _that_ here?!” Draco demanded.

 

Max grinned and turned around and pulled Draco into his arms.

 

“How about…”

 

“No.” Draco said automatically, removing Max’s hands from his body. “If you can’t wait until the kids are in bed, then no.”

 

Max grinned. “But once they’re in bed…?” He trailed off happily.

 

“You’re terrible.” Draco scowled before striding off into the kitchen.

 

Max laughed and he sat himself down with a groan in a circle of kids and he happily played games with them. He was making a fool of himself if the laughter he could hear from the other parents was any indication, but he couldn’t have cared less if he’d tried as Regan climbed his back like a tree and popped out over his shoulder.

 

“I love you, Dad.” He said.

 

Max smiled adoringly at his seven year old son and he hefted him over his shoulder and into his lap, giving him a small tickle to voracious giggles.

 

“I love you too, Regan baby.”

 

He played a few more games, they lost a couple more guests as their children fell asleep and all but dropped on their feet, the younger children first. Their own children were shepherded off to bed, leaving just their oldest eight to run around, scoffing sweets and chocolate, nibbling fruit and playing games. Max watched with a grin as Braiden and two other boys all plunged their hands into the cauldron of goo and rooted around, almost up to their elbows, for wrapped presents. They emerged victorious, dripping the red goo onto the carpet.

 

“Damon! Be careful.” A woman chastised.

 

“It’s okay. We pre-treated the floors ready for tonight.” Max waved away. “It’ll dry and vacuum right out.” He lied easily. A simple spell after their guests had gone and this entire room, stains and all, would vanish as if it had never been there.

 

“Oh…you’re sure?” The woman asked.

 

“Absolutely. With so many kids we needed a tough carpet to be able to stand up to them. A bit of pre-treatment every now and then and anything and everything will come out when it’s vacuumed.”

 

Tegan came running into the room with Eva and Ave and two other girls following her. Tegan was a born leader, Max thought proudly as he watched her organise her sisters and the other two girls into doing what she wanted easily and as naturally as breathing. She really was going to be a force to be reckoned with when she was older.

 

“Hi, Daddy!” One little girl called out, waving to a man standing awkwardly in a group of other men who looked just as uncomfortable. Max was amused to see that it was the man he’d been talking to earlier, John. This must have been his daughter, Lori.

 

“Ten minutes, Lori, then we need to go. You need a bath before bed.” He said.

 

“Aw. Can’t I stay over?” She begged.

 

“It’s not polite to ask such things, Lori.”

 

“It’s no problem if she does want to stay over.” Nasta insisted. “We can move the girls around so that Tegan and Lori will have their own room together.”

 

“I…no, she better not. Her Mum will be wanting her home.”

 

Nasta nodded understandingly, but Max could see Draco going pink. They all knew what this was about and it wasn’t about Lori’s Mum wanting her home. It was because John had found out that they were five men living together. Hopefully the fact that he’d stayed so long afterwards meant that he just needed to get his head around the idea and that he wouldn’t take out his issues on the kids by forcing them into this fight and telling them they couldn’t play together. Parents who demanded that their children stay away from other children, their friends, just because the parents had an issue with one another really grated on Max’s nerves, there was entirely no need for it and if John and his Wife had a problem with them because they happened to be a gay harem of five, then fine, he wouldn’t be the first, nor the last, but there was no reason why Tegan and Lori couldn’t still be friends despite it.

 

“I think we need to wrap up, kids.” Nasta called out with a smile. “Us adults get tired and need to be in bed too!” He added when it looked like he was going to be mobbed. Instead he got giggles and laughs. “Don’t forget your party bags!”

 

“This was the best party ever!” One of Braiden’s friends, Damon, told his Mum as he looked at the toy he’d unwrapped from the cauldron, a half-eaten biscuit in his other hand.

 

“Can I have ‘nother biscuit?” One of the youngest boys still there asked Max shyly.

 

Max smiled softly at him and he touched the grey streaked hair.

 

“Of course you can.” He said as he stood up and got the plate from the table. All the biscuits at the front were gone, nabbed by little hands, but those at the back, those that the smaller kids couldn’t easily reach on their own, we’re still left.

 

He held the plate down and the sweet little boy took a ‘monster’ shaped biscuit and smiled at him.

 

“Thank you.” He said quietly before hurrying back to his Mother, who was smiling, dewy eyed at her son.

 

Just over ten minutes later and they were alone. Several party bags remaining that their own children laid claim to and a wrecked house, lots of leftover biscuits and sweets and stains and spills all over the floor.

 

“Merlin, I’m glad we can get rid of all this with a wave of a wand.” He laughed as he took in the damage.

 

Blaise, who had crawled under the table, emerged carefully with Leolin snuggled in his arms. He smiled as he gazed down at their sleeping Faerie son.

 

“He is out of it.” Blaise told them with a laugh.

 

“Get him off to bed, he can have his bath in the morning.” Nasta said, coming over to lay a kiss on Leolin’s cheek. “Tegan sweetheart, come on, get ready for your bath.”

 

Tegan hopped up and took control of her siblings, grabbing Regan’s hand and pulling him up to his feet.

 

“Calix, come on.” She ordered.

 

“I think if we do this in groups it’ll be easier. Eva, Ave and Tegan on the first floor, Farren and Braiden on the second and then Regan and Calix on this floor.” Max said.

 

“You heard your Dad.” Nasta called out. “Girls with me, on the first floor. Braiden, Farren, you two with your Dad Max on the second. Draco, can you take Regan and Calix?”

 

“Sure, come on boys.” Draco put a hand on both of their shoulders and steered them into the bathroom just outside the smaller family room.

 

“I’m going to get this guy to bed and check on Harry, then I’ll come down and start the cleaning.” Blaise said as he shifted Leolin and made his way up the stairs.

 

Max took Farren, who at nearly eight years old was very tall and bulky, and the more slender, smaller Braiden up two flights of stairs and into the bathroom on this floor.

 

“We can bathe ourselves!” Braiden insisted stubbornly as Max plugged the bath and ran the hot tap.

 

“Alright, alright.” Max said, holding his hands up. “I’ll just be sat here.” He said as he put the lid on the toilet down and sat himself on it as the boys stripped themselves off and climbed into the bath.

 

They played for a bit and laughed together while he watched them while making it seem like he wasn’t, as Braiden would snap at him if he caught him.

Max and the others were considering giving Braiden a little bit more independence by allowing him to bathe alone, by himself. He was getting more and more outspoken and embarrassed by bathing with someone watching him, so they thought that it was time to leave him alone, but Harry was naturally very apprehensive and it was one of his firm, non-negotiable rules that none of them were to even leave the room if there were children in the bath, not even for a minute.

After he was growled at for the second time for being caught looking in the same direction as his two sons, Max swore that he’d bring up this issue again. Braiden obviously wanted to bathe alone and he was mature enough to be allowed the option of bathing alone if it was what he truly wanted and it seemed that he did as he washed his own hair and his own body and then climbed out, demanding that he look the other way as he wrapped himself in a towel.

Farren wasn’t as obvious in his dislike of being supervised while bathing as Braiden was, but being bigger and bulkier, he disliked sharing baths and he didn’t much like being supervised either.

Max sighed as he led the two boys to their separate bedrooms to get dressed and had the door closed in his face both times. He just had to accept that his children were getting older and they were growing up. They wanted their space, they wanted their independence and they had to let them have it so that they could grow.

He peeked in on the younger children, all of them were fast asleep and he took the time to tuck them in, giving them a soft kiss to their little cheeks. At least they still needed him, still appreciated him being there for them. He sighed and let it go. They were there to raise their children to adulthood, to be wonderful, caring, kind people and they were going to do so, even if that meant letting them go, giving them a longer line in which to stretch themselves out and flourish. It was painful, it felt like someone was sliding a knife between his ribs, but it was a part of parenthood. He wanted to crush his children to his chest, in his arms, but he knew that in order for them to become adults themselves, he had to let them go and it hurt.

 

“Merlin’s balls, this shit is fucked up.” He groaned to himself.

 

“What is?” Blaise asked, taking more food into the kitchen to put it into storage.

 

“Braiden and Farren, they didn’t want to share a bath and they really didn’t want me there with them. They need to start bathing on their own.”

 

Blaise gave him a look. “I was thinking the same. I’m sure that I was bathing alone at eight years old. Mother might have had our old elf watching me while invisible for a small time, I’ve never asked, but I believed that I was alone and that gave me confidence and a feeling of independence and trust. We need to beat Harry down about this. Braiden is _eight_ years old and the quintuplets are only two months away from eight. Merlin, Braiden is going to be going to Hogwarts in just three years. What are we going to do, floo over every time he has a bath in school and watch him? He needs this small touch of independence now, so that he’ll be happier in a boarding school without us.”

 

Max sighed and scrubbed a hand through his short hair. “I know.” He shook his head. “We’ll give it a few days. I don’t want to upset him after tonight. He’ll be upset enough as it is. Braiden might bring it up again himself anyway, we just need to back him up when he does.”

 

“I think Eva and Ave at six are too young to be left alone, but Braiden and our quintuplets, obviously excluding Leolin, are old enough and responsible enough to bathe themselves. They’re coming to resent us for holding them back, that’s why Braiden is so frustrated with being forced to put up with supervision. He doesn’t need it.”

 

“Who doesn’t need what?” Nasta asked as he joined them, wand jutting out of his jeans pocket ready to remove the decorations and spills.   

 

“Braiden and Farren were _not_ happy to being forced to share a bath and put up with me being there.”

 

Nasta grunted and scratched at his chin, which was already growing stubble despite him shaving before the party.

 

“I keep telling Harry that the older kids need to be bathing alone. It goes without saying that Leolin cannot be included in this, but there is no reason at all that the other five cannot bathe alone and unsupervised. Braiden is starting to kick off more about it and Tegan wasn’t very happy either. She was washing herself and her hair fine, but all Eva and Ave wanted was to play and it was annoying her. She is getting older, she needs her own space.”

 

“Then we tell Harry.” Draco answered, walking in to join them. “Regan was particularly vocal about not only sharing a bath with Calix, who didn’t seem to care, but about me sat watching him. They’re too old for this.”

 

“Then we’re agreed. We’ll browbeat Harry into agreeing. Seven and a half is the age which they should be given a taste of the independence and responsibility of bathing themselves and keeping themselves clean. They brush their teeth themselves, wash their faces in the morning themselves, they dress themselves and I’m sure that they’re capable of bathing themselves in the evenings too.” Nasta said. “We leave it a few days though. He needs his space at this difficult time.”

 

“With the four of us and the kids on him, he’ll have to agree, even if he does sit outside the bathroom door for the first couple of weeks.” Blaise smiled.

 

“I think the kids could live with that compromise for a while.” Max agreed.

 

Nasta took charge then and he waved his wand and all the spilt and crushed crisps and biscuits vanished from the carpet.

Max joined him and soon enough all the food had been stored safely, the decorations had been removed, though Blaise had kept Harry’s very realistic spider and he’d put it in a box to go up in the attic along with the Christmas decorations.

They were done within an hour and all four of them collapsed into a heap on the settee they’d just moved back into its usual position.

 

“Damn I’m tired.” Max complained.

 

“Today was a little packed.” Nasta agreed, slipping his arm around Draco’s neck and pulling him in to cuddle.

 

“A little? I’ve never seen so many kids in all my life. Not even at a Maddison party.” Blaise complained as he cheekily made himself comfortable over the laps of all three of them. “Merlin, Draco, move your knee a little, I thought only Harry had those knobbly, stabby knees.”

 

“It’s your fault for lying all over us like we’re carpeting.” Draco groused, even as he moved his legs so that Blaise would be more comfortable.

 

Max, who had Blaise’s upper body and head in his considerable lap, started playing with Blaise’s hair and face, running gentle fingertips over his skin and over his scalp.

 

“Oh, that feels nice.” Blaise groaned happily.

 

Nasta chuckled and he pushed Blaise’s shoes off and started massaging his feet.

 

“That feels doubly nice.” He all but purred.

 

It was getting late and the four of them were tired after the day they’d had. The kids had all been up past their usual bedtimes and were likely flat out by now and the four of them felt like joining them.

The decision was made for them when Blaise started snoring lightly and Max chuckled, bending forward to press a kiss to the slightly open mouth. He shifted Blaise into his arms and picked him up.

 

“I think it’s time we got to bed.” Nasta told the others, standing up himself and stretching. “We have to be up with the quads at half six and Leolin will be awake not too long afterwards.”

 

Max led the way up the stairs and into their bedroom, letting Draco open the door for him so that he could duck inside quietly with Blaise in his arms.

A little lump in the dead centre of the large bed informed them of where Harry was and that he was sleeping. His album was on top of the covers, telling them without words that Harry had fallen asleep while looking at it.

 

“He’s been crying.” Nasta sighed as he checked on Harry, gently wiping his submissive’s face free of the dried tear tracks.

 

“He asked my Dad last week if he’d thought that his parents would have loved the children.” Max sighed. “This Halloween more than any other seems to have hit him harder.”

 

“We’ll make him feel better now over the next few days.” Draco whispered.

 

Max nodded as he carefully put Blaise down and stripped him down to just his boxers before tucking him into the bed behind Harry, who made a soft noise in sleep, but didn’t move as Blaise subconsciously slipped right up behind Harry and slipped an arm around his belly.

 

“They’re too cute.” Max gushed exaggeratedly.

 

“Be quiet or you’ll wake them. They won’t be cute at all then.” Draco groused.

 

The three of them stripped and climbed into the bed and Max happily pressed himself against Blaise’s back, slipping an arm over him and Harry sandwiched in the middle. His hand was brushed by Nasta’s and in a show of soppy romanticism, they laced their fingers together and held hands over all three of their other mates.

Max yawned quietly and settled himself down after the busy day. Their house was back to normal, their eighteen children were all asleep in bed and they would comfort and cheer up Harry tomorrow, when he was awake. Max wondered if breakfast in bed would help make Harry feel better and he prepared himself to get up early with the quads to make breakfast for his four other mates to serve in bed while he sorted out their children.

It had been a good Halloween, though they wouldn’t know if Harry was alright until tomorrow morning. If he had cried it all out of his system then he would be absolutely fine tomorrow and he’d be dancing around as if nothing had ever happened. If it had been a bad night and he was feeling worse than he usually did then he would be quiet, very quiet and he would be dazed and spacey as he got lost in thought. It was painful for all of them to see Harry like that, knowing as they did that they couldn’t give him the one thing he truly wanted, his parents back.

Max fell asleep with these troubling thoughts filling his mind, but with a plan to make it better if he could, in any way that he could. He would make Harry feel better and he would help keep their children’s spirits high after their first Halloween party. All too soon it would be Christmas and with the New Year came the prospect of a new child. It had been too long since they’d had a new baby in the family. The thought made him smile softly as he slipped off to sleep.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Halloween, lovelies! I hope you and your fur babies are all safe and sound tonight. I’ve got all of mine covered and locked in, just in case.
> 
> I picked a year at random this time and I went with it. I got the idea of a Halloween party from my work place, who have decorated everything up to the back teeth with gaudy, laughable decorations and it made me think of what wizards would use as Halloween decorations. That gave me the idea of the spider based off of Harry’s visit to Aragog.
> 
> Of course baby cuteness is a must. They’re all too cute. Had a hell of a time coming up with costumes for the kids! But the quartet of little kittens was just too adorable not to include.
> 
> Anyway, this is my last update for the next couple of months, I’m taking a break from all updates now to destress until the New Year and I’ll likely be updating The Black Heir first, for our New Year update, so until then,
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	48. Christmas Eve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 24th December 2015
> 
>  
> 
> Nasta – 55 years
> 
> Max – 49 years
> 
> Blaise – 36 years
> 
> Draco – 35 years
> 
> Harry – 35 years
> 
> -
> 
> Braiden – 18 years, 4 months
> 
> Quintuplets – 17 years, 11 months
> 
> Eva and Ave – 16 years, 11 months
> 
> Taren – 15 years, 10 months
> 
> Lai – 15 years, 2 months
> 
> Xabiere – 13 years, 10 months
> 
> Mace and Evie – 13 years, 1 month
> 
> Mollie – 12 years, 8 months
> 
> Quadruplets – 11 years, 9 months
> 
> Serra and Senna – 9 years, 7 months
> 
> Lian – 8 years
> 
> Triplets – Phoebe, Neave and Luce – 7 years, 5 months
> 
> Loren – 6 years, 2 months
> 
> Cyneric and Kallan – 5 years, 3 months
> 
> Sully – 3 years, 3 months
> 
> Triplets – Rosalia, Nia and Vanora – 2 years, 6 months
> 
> Sextuplets – 16 months
> 
> -
> 
> Nico – 5 months
> 
>  

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry threw his head back and laughed as his excited children played and run around excitedly. It was only five in the afternoon, but they were so happy and so excited for tomorrow that none of them could sit still and none of them were being quiet.

His sextuplets, only sixteen months old, were wound up and toddling everywhere, they were a bit too young to understand what Christmas was or what was going on, but there was so much excitement in the house with their older siblings running around that it was infectious and the six of them were everywhere, babbling and shrieking.

Braiden was sat in Boden’s lap on the floor, Rowan was lying back against Braiden, head resting on his thigh so they made a tandem, reclining pile. Every so often Braiden would reach out to prevent one of his younger siblings from running right into the Christmas tree while smiling fondly at the pregnant belly of his first ever child, growing steadily. He touched it reverently too, and so did his two mates.

Harry smiled as he watched his eighteen year old son, growing up, but still home for Christmas. Harry had immediately invited the three of them home for Christmas and as Boden’s parents didn’t like Braiden and Rowan’s parents didn’t like Boden, the three of them came here, where all three of them were loved and accepted. Next year they were going to stay at their own home, with their new baby, and though Harry more than understood, he did feel a little sad to think that this Christmas would be the last with all of his children together.

 

“Mummy! Daddy Max won’t put the mincey pies out for Santa!” His three year old son, Sully, cried out. “Santa won’t come!”

 

“He will, darling.” Harry said softly, touching his hair. “We can’t put it out too soon. We’ll do it later tonight.”

 

“But if we do it now, he’ll come sooner.” Loren piped up.

 

“It doesn’t work like that, Lore.” Calix told him. “He’ll come to us when he comes to us, we aren’t going to be left out.”

 

“Your brother’s right.” Harry told his son. “Santa will come because you’re all good boys and girls.”

 

“Can I have my eve present, Mummy?” Rosalia, his two and a half year old little girl asked, looking up at him with huge blue eyes.

 

Harry pushed her beautiful blonde hair out of those eyes and looked at the mass of presents under the tree.

 

“Hmm, I don’t know.” He said slowly, playing with them.

 

“Please, Mummy!”

 

“Please!”

 

“We’ll be good.”

 

“Please, Mummy?”

 

Harry laughed as he was set upon by his little babies.

 

“Go on then.” He relented.

 

The kids rushed to the tree and found the present with their name on it. Harry waded through them and he picked up the older kids boxes and he handed them out. Boden and Rowan both looked surprised when Harry handed them a box too.

 

“You’re family.” He said sternly at their equally shocked looks. “You get dragged into the crazy traditions just as much as everyone else. If I can’t escape from it, then no one can.” He added with a wink and a laugh.

 

He watched the kids unwrap a brand new pair of pyjamas each, a hot chocolate set, including marshmallows and chocolate shavings, a small pack of unflavoured popcorn, one chocolate bar each and a clementine.

Harry went to the shelf against the one wall and he picked up three brand new DVDs. Christmas ones. As if the kids weren’t in the mood already.

 

“I’ve got it, Mum.” Regan offered as he took the first DVD and set up the TV.

 

The kids, who had all shucked their clothes to get into their new pyjamas right then and there, cheered and urged Regan to go faster, to set up the DVD faster.

Half of them were already eating their clementines or chocolate. The popcorn was for the second film, the hot chocolate for the third.

Harry sighed happily and he collected all of the clothes strewn about the floor and he went into the kitchen to find Max. Leolin was sat at the table, a baby Nico in his arms feeding on a bottle.

 

“How’s Nico?” He asked as he peered at the tiny baby in his son’s arms, keeping an eye on them both. He was so proud of Leolin for stepping up to help with Nico.

 

“Fine.” Leolin answered, his gold eyes fixed on the milk level of the bottle. “Drinking well.”

 

Harry smiled as he watched Leolin feed the five month old baby. He dumped the armful of clothes he had in front of the washing machine and he turned to Max, who was furiously preparing vegetables for tomorrow’s Christmas lunch, peeling and chopping before leaving them in saucepans ready for tomorrow. Harry went and kissed him.

 

“I told you to stay out of the kitchen.” Max told him. “You’re such a distraction. You’re too beautiful to resist.” He declared as he dropped his peeler and the potato in his hands to sweep Harry into his arms and he started nibbling over his neck.

 

“Max!” He laughed, sinking into those strong arms and giving himself over.

 

Max hummed and drew him closer, licking over his chin and moving to gently bite his lip.

 

“I’m sat right here!” Leolin complained. “And if you’d forgotten there is a five month old baby here too!”

 

“Nico’s not going to notice.” Max said.

 

“Nico won’t remember anything either.” Harry added with a lecherous grin.

 

“I will.” Leolin groused, scowling heavily.

 

“You look just like you did as a baby.” Harry smiled softly, reminiscing sadly as he remembered the scowly baby his Leolin had been. He was a grown man now, even if he was still growing.

 

“He does, doesn’t he?” Max agreed.

 

Leolin snorted and stood up, to a very impressive height given that he’d only had a proper growth spurt earlier that year, but then he, and his quintuplet siblings, were turning eighteen years old in just a week. Leolin had done a lot of growing and developing in the last year or two and Harry felt so proud of him. He was stronger, more mature and he was now out of the immediate danger area. He was almost an adult Faerie and his immune system was now working at full force. He would be able to stave off anything and everything and he’d already been tested, coming down with a slight cold last month, but apart from a slight fever and a bit of a cough, Leolin had carried on as he normally would have. He had fought off his cold by himself with no need for medical intervention, no Healer and no hospital.

Leolin left the kitchen and very suddenly Harry found himself picked up and sat on a counter, Max’s lips on his and a very insistent tongue begging for entrance to his mouth. Harry opened to Max like a flower to the sun and he made a soft sound, shifting forward so that he pressed tightly against Max’s body and he wrapped his arms around his neck.

Max broke away from him, panting heavily, his eyes half lidded and shiny with love, lust and happiness.

 

“I love you so much.” He declared. “Happy Christmas.”

 

Harry chuckled, his voice deeper with arousal. “I love you too, you big softie.”

 

Max hummed and made a soft sound of pleasure, before he groaned.

 

“What?” Harry asked.

 

“I’ve just realised that there’s no way I can ravish you like you deserve tonight. By the time we get to bed it’ll be two in the morning and those damn munchkins will have us up again at four.”

 

Harry laughed. “It’s only for one day.” He said calmly. “As soon as we get down here, their excitement will infect us and we won’t even be tired anymore.”

 

“We’ll be too busy to be tired.” Max laughed.

 

“Exactly.” Harry grinned.

 

A shout preceded one of their younger twins coming blasting into the kitchen at full speed. Harry immediately slipped off of the counter to intercede.

 

“Senna!” Max shouted angrily. “I am cooking in this room. You _never_ run in the kitchen when I’m cooking! Corner, now!”

 

“Serra’s hitting me!” Sen cried out, turning and coming to burrow into Harry.

 

“Seren! In here now!” Harry shouted and Senna’s twin came slouching onto the room, a cardboard roll in hand. “Are you hitting Senna?” He demanded.

 

The nine year old bit a small lip and looked at the floor, nodding.

 

“Why are you hitting Senna?” Harry demanded. “Do you want to be grounded for Christmas?”

 

Seren’s blue eyes teared up and smooth, black hair went flying as the nine year old shook their head furiously.

 

“Well?” Harry prodded.

 

“No, Mummy. I’m sorry, Senna.” Seren said without being prompted and Harry nodded approvingly.

 

“Give me that tube.” Harry said, taking the empty wrapping paper tube from Seren. “Go into the living room and watch the film nicely.”

 

Harry turned back to Senna and smoothed the black hair from the tear stained face, blue-green eyes looking up at him, huge in the tiny face. Those eyes were so much like Farren’s teal that Harry had to smile as he kissed the soft, pale forehead.

 

“Do I still have to go in the corner?”

 

“No.” Max sighed. “Just go and watch the film with your brothers and sisters and no more running in the kitchen. It’s dangerous.”

 

Senna hugged Max around the middle and Max ruffled the neat, black hair before Harry got his own quick cuddle and Senna rushed off again.

 

“These kids will be the death of me.” Max groaned. “Running in the kitchen when I’m cooking!”

 

“At least the hob isn’t on.” Harry comforted as he looked at the extra-large joint of beef roasting in the oven.

 

“It doesn’t matter. My heart still missed several beats.”

 

Harry laid a kiss over Max’s heart, on his shirt and grinned at him. “I’m going to go and see how Blaise and Draco are getting on with the wrapping.”

 

“They’ll con you into helping and then disappear for a break.” Max grinned.

 

Harry laughed. “I know. They’ve been up there for a couple of hours now though, they deserve a break.”

 

“I’ll get the kettle on then.” Max laughed.

 

Harry waved to let Max know that he’d heard and he went up the stairs to the master bedroom. The kids had steadfastly been banned from this room for the last week unless it was an emergency. It had been hard to keep the sextuplets out, who were in the habit of coming into their bedroom in the early hours and climbing into bed with them. It was a snug fit getting all six of them in the bed with five adults, but somehow their squirming little sixteen month olds managed it.

 

“How are you two doing?” He asked as he walked into chaos.

 

There were toys everywhere, wrapping paper everywhere, mountains of already wrapped gifts, their tags firmly stuck on, piled high in the corners.

 

“Where did all of these new presents come from?” Blaise demanded. “I thought we were done with the wrapping over the last month!”

 

“No. I went shopping yesterday and the day before.”

 

“Damn it, Harry.” Draco groaned as he finished spelling the one present closed and fell back gracelessly.

 

Harry laughed and he sat on Draco’s hips, leaning down so they were chest to chest and he kissed Draco softly. A slap to his arse had him looking over to Blaise, who was grinning unrepentantly.

 

“Go and have a break.” Harry said with a smile. “I’ll take over here for a bit. Max is making you tea and coffee, just stay away from my biscuits.”

 

“Have you finished with them?” Draco asked, sitting back up with Harry firmly in his lap, his arms around his waist, holding him close.

 

“Yep, all done and decorated and I’ve hidden several batches where wandering hands can’t reach them for the next few days.”

 

“Including mine?” Blaise asked with a teasing grin.

 

“Especially yours.” Harry replied with a small chuckle.

 

Blaise bent forward and tickled him and Harry giggled, shifting on Draco.

 

“Stop that.” Draco snapped. “He’s rubbing against me.”

 

Blaise laughed and pulled Harry off of Draco’s lap and kissed him.

 

“Go on the both of you. I’m setting you free for a break. As soon as you’ve had your drinks, you better get your bums back in here to finish off. I need to get those kids into bed.”

 

“Yeah, okay. I’d rather be wrapping than fighting a losing battle getting those kids into bed. When’s Nasta home?”

 

“He should be here in the next half an hour so if you want that coffee, I’d go and get it now.”

 

“Right, that’s convinced me.” Blaise said, standing and stretching.

 

Harry laughed and he turned to the presents he’d bought yesterday and the day before. He’d gone on a massive spree and now they were paying for it with all the extra wrapping. He didn’t mind though, he couldn’t help himself when it came to his children…and now his little grandbabies too, he thought fondly of baby Nico and his beautiful Braiden who was about to have his own child, a daughter if the scans could be trusted.

Farren, Eva and Ave were all inherited too and they had a little over two years until their next Dracken, Xabiere, went through his own inheritance. Farren was a dominant, his twin terrors were both submissive. Thankfully the girls were holding off their meetings for another year at least, but they wanted to go into talks with the Elders next month, when they turned seventeen. Harry was dreading it as the girls wanted their meetings to be held together. It was going to be a disaster if the Elders agreed.

Farren, their dominant Dracken, was miserable. He’d broken up with his boyfriend, Sasha, a month before his seventeenth birthday, just a year ago and he’d been unhappy ever since. Harry just wished that there was something that he could do for his son…for both of them if he was honest. He’d come to love Sasha as a son, saying goodbye had been so hard and he’d never wished more that Farren had been born human. Farren’s misery kept him up at night, but still Harry had no idea what to do to help or what was for the best. His mates told him to leave it alone, to leave Farren to figure it out himself as he was, nearly, eighteen years old and that he had to sort it out for himself. Harry wasn’t sure and he still felt that Farren needed help, but he just didn’t know what to do.

Harry sighed and he grabbed the next present to wrap, taking note of the sticky note on the front in his own handwriting that labelled the gift as Boden’s. Farren would do what he felt he wanted to do and at the moment, that was separating himself from Sasha, despite the obvious pain it was causing the both of them. Harry had lost count of how many times he’d run into Sasha, red eyed and miserable, around the neighbourhood and Max had had an awkward encounter in the supermarket when Loren had run up to Sasha and hugged him, demanding to know when he was coming back.

His mates were right though, it wasn’t for him to dictate what Farren did next, his son was eighteen in a week, he had to figure it out on his own, but after a year of separation and still no sign of either of them getting over their break up, Harry had to wonder if there wasn’t something that he could do to help them, he just felt so powerless, so fucking useless as he watched them both meander around in misery, sending fervent, longing glances at one another when they were in the same area when the other wasn’t looking.

He wished again that his Farren had been born a human and he said a silent, heartfelt prayer that none of his other Dracken children experienced this sort of pain. He knew Braiden had had a girlfriend before his inheritance and that he had truly cared for her, but he hadn’t loved her to the deep extent that Farren had loved Sasha. It had been, not easy perhaps, for Braiden to say goodbye to Rebecca, but it hadn’t caused him a modicum of the grief that it had caused Farren to say goodbye to Sasha.

Braiden had moved on, he’d had his inheritance and then the meetings had started and he’d met two amazing people in Boden and Rowen. They looked after each other and they were all lovely, well rounded, level headed people and there was nothing more he could have wished for, for Braiden. It was his second born son who was having all of the problems, all because he had been born a dominant Dracken.

Overcome with emotion, Harry abandoned the wrapping and he went in search of Farren. He had the overwhelming desire to hold his second born son close to his chest in the vain hope of protecting him. He inhaled deeply and he changed course to go to Farren’s bedroom. He knocked on the door and he waited for a sign that it was okay for him to enter. It didn’t come.

 

“Farren?” He asked softly.

 

Again he was met with silence, at least until the bedroom door opened of its own accord and Harry stepped in to the room to find Farren sat on his bed, his wand in hand.

 

“Are you okay?” He asked gently.

 

Farren looked at him and Harry sighed as he saw the tear tracks cutting down his cheeks. The urge to hug his child had been more than just his own melancholy thoughts it seemed.

Harry went to the bed and wrapped his arms around Farren and his son turned into his stomach and started sobbing.

 

“Why do you do this to yourself, love?” He asked. “If you want to be with Sasha, go and be with him. You know we’ll support you.”

 

“It’s…it’s not…not fair to him.” Farren sobbed brokenly.

 

“This isn’t fair on either of you, Farren. It’s been an entirely too long, miserable year. When are you going to admit that he was more than just a boyfriend to you?”

 

“What do you mean?” Farren asked, pulling back and wiping his tears on the sleeve of his jumper.

 

“You loved him, Farren. Like I love your Dads and they love me. Sash wasn’t just a boyfriend for you, he was so much more and you need to stop burying your head in the sand and bottling up all your emotions. You still love him and if the way he looks these days is any indication then Sasha still loves you too.”

 

“We can’t be together, Mum. I’m a Dracken and he’s human.”

 

Harry sighed. “You could always choose to be with Sasha and ignore your Dracken side, Farren. You’re happier with Sasha and being with another Dracken might not alleviate that feeling. You love Sasha in a way that you might not love anyone else. A whole year, Farren, and still neither of you are close to moving on.”

 

“How can I stop the need to find a submissive?” Farren asked him.

 

“You can’t.” Harry said simply. “But you have the choice to reject those same submissives. You’ve done it before, you’ve been inherited for two years, baby and you’ve rejected every submissive you’ve met.”

 

“What if I meet one I actually like? I can’t hurt Sasha like that, Mum.”

 

“Like you’re hurting him and yourself now?” Harry countered. “You can’t carry on like this, Farren. Wondering if you’ll ever find a submissive that you’ll love as much as Sasha, comparing everyone you meet to Sasha and finding them lacking because they just aren’t him or even wondering what will happen if you actually like a submissive, but I’m willing to bet that no one will ever come close to Sasha in your eyes, Farren, because he’s the one for you and if this last year hasn’t killed what you two had together, then you aren’t meant to be apart.”

 

Farren considered that for a moment, before he was up and tearing out of the room.

 

“Farren!” Harry called back loudly.

 

Farren stopped at the door to his bedroom and looked back, a bit startled at the interruption to his plan.

 

“Take a coat, love. It’s raining.”

 

Farren nodded, steeled himself, and then he was off, tearing through the house again.

Harry sighed and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Had he interfered too much? Had he done the right thing? As he stood up, he caught sight of a photograph of Farren and Sasha together and underneath, half hidden by the photo, was a newly written letter on Farren’s duvet, the ink still drying. He caught a sentence or two near the end, but they were enough to drive him to tears.

_‘…really missing you this Christmas, Sash. I hope you’re doing well. I still love you, you know. I think I always will. It’s harder around your birthday, but Christmas is worse as it’s a time to be together and we aren’t. I miss you. I love you.’_

 

Harry swallowed and he steeled himself. If that small section of letter hadn’t convinced him that he’d done the right thing, then Farren rushing out like the hounds of hell were after him had to be. He would find a way to make this work, for Farren and for Sasha.

He went back down to the ground floor and into the kitchen. Nasta was home and he was warming up with a cup of doublemint tea to help him relax and unwind after work. As he continually pointed out, the dragons didn’t stop needing care just because it was Christmas and as the only Dragonologist that the reserve had, he was always on call regardless of what time it was, or what day it was. He’d been called in on Christmas night before, on his (and Taren’s) birthday, on someone else’s birthday and even once at four in the morning. He was paid incredibly handsomely for the inconvenience and he did truly love all of his dragons, his Caronwyn in particular.

 

“Farren tore out of here like a bat out of hell, what happened, do you know?” Max asked worriedly.

 

“He’s gone to see a man about a dog.” Harry answered.

 

“What the hell does that even mean?” Max demanded.

 

“It has something to do with Sasha, doesn’t it?” Nasta asked. Nothing ever, _ever_ , got past this man. “You promised that you wouldn’t interfere, Harry.”

 

“And I haven’t.” Harry replied, affronted. “Farren worked it out on his own. It’s Christmas Eve and he was sat in his bedroom, crying, looking at an old photo of him and Sash together and writing him a letter about how much he missed him and still loved him. What the hell do you want me to do, ignore it?!”

 

“What are you going to do when he finds a mate he likes?”

 

“It won’t matter.” Harry said stiffly.

 

“Why, because our son will be happy while Sasha is left in misery? Have you even thought of that poor boy?!”

 

“Of course I have! You’ve seen Sasha yourself, you know he’s just as affected as Farren is. They’re miserable without one another!”

 

“So, what, they get a few more months, maybe a couple of years before they have to break up again, is that your reasoning? It took us months to get Farren back to normal after that first break up, Harry, _months_! It’s going to be ten times worse a second time.”

 

“Was he back to normal?!” Harry demanded angrily. “Do you call anything about the last year normal, Max?! Because I don’t! I don’t call sitting up in his bedroom alone, sobbing over old photos a year after they broke up NORMAL!”

 

“It’s Christmas Eve, let’s not do this now.” Nasta tried to placate.

 

“I will do this now!” Max snapped angrily. “He’s sent Farren running after false hope!”

 

“It’s not false hope!” Harry defended. “Farren loves Sasha, truly loves him, Max. No one is ever going to compare to Sasha in Farren’s eyes. No one is ever going to measure up, no one is ever going to be as good because they aren’t Sasha!”

 

“I can see that.” Blaise said from the doorway. “It’s the same with my Mother, really. She went through the phase of killing all her partners because none of them were my Father. She tried to replace him, only to find them all lacking in some way or another. She looked for reasons to dislike them after they were married. It took her years to settle down and we’re talking fourteen years here, not just two or three. I don’t want that for Farren. If he’s happy with Sasha, let him be happy, Max.”

 

“His Dracken won’t settle for a human.” Max said sadly. “I wish to Merlin it would, but it won’t.”

 

“But if he is happy with only Sasha, who are we to prevent him from being with the person he loves just because his Dracken might throw a fit?” Harry asked. “Can’t you see that he’s never going to be happy if he isn’t with Sasha? It’s not like they can’t have kids either, Sasha has the carrier gene. They can be a normal family.”

 

“What, when he isn’t running off to view prospective mates?” Max laughed derisively. “It’s a dream that they can be together.”

 

“It’s not.” Harry snapped angrily. “And I won’t let you stand in their way if they want to be together, Max. Farren can reject the submissives as easily as they reject him!”

 

“And if he finds a submissive he does like and does want to be with?” Max glared.

 

“Then I expect him to work out his problems like a man.”

 

“A problem that you’ve created by sending him running after Sasha!” Max shouted loudly.

 

“He went after Sasha on his own, of his own free choice.”

 

“Oh and I suppose you had absolutely nothing to do with that, did you?”

 

“I’m not doing this now.” Harry hissed as the family room, just next door, went quiet with the increasingly loud shouting. “I can see your point, Max, but I don’t agree and I’m not going to. Drop it, we’re not doing this today of all days.”

 

“Why, because it isn’t convenient to you as you’re ruining our son’s life!”

 

“No.” Harry snarled. “Because it’s Christmas Eve and we are within earshot of a room filled with nearly all of our children!”

 

As if to hammer that point home there was a scuffle at the door to the kitchen and a tiny head poked out while Braiden’s voice in the back urgently called Rosalia back.

 

“Mummy, are you sad?” The two year old, curly blonde haired, blue eyed little girl asked worriedly, looking from her Mother to three of her four Fathers. “Is it Santa, is he not coming?”

 

Harry smiled and went to his baby girl. “Of course Santa is still coming, silly.” He exclaimed joyously…a joy he wasn’t truly feeling at the moment. “Santa is always going to come for my wonderfully behaved children.”

 

He picked Rosalia up, sent a hard look to Max and carried her back into the family room. His children had paused the movie they were watching and thirty odd worried faces looked at him.

 

“What’s this?” He asked with a false joy and a false smile. “There will be no unhappy faces on Christmas Eve!”

 

“We heard shouting.” His three year old Sully said, his lip trembling.

 

“Oh, no baby, don’t cry.” He said as he hunched down and pulled Sully into a hug, rubbing his back. “There’s no reason to cry. Us silly grownups were just arguing about how many minced pies to leave out for Santa. We can’t decide if one is enough, or because there are so many of you and you have so many presents for being such good boys and girls, to leave him three.”

 

“I say we leave him five.” Nasta said as he followed Harry into the living room.

 

“One is enough.” Blaise argued. “He has to have a minced pie in every house he visits, if we leave him three, or even five, he won’t get back out of the door, let alone the chimney!”

 

The kids all laughed or giggled and put in their thoughts and arguments about how many pies to leave out and when Harry was satisfied that they had been suitably distracted he turned their attention back to the movie they were watching with their hot chocolates.

 

“Come on, this is the last film then you need to be in bed!” He told them sternly.

 

“I want to stay up and see Santa.” Their little Neave complained.

 

“Santa won’t come if you’re awake.” Boden told them with a kind smile.

 

“He won’t?!” Sully cried in dismay, turning to Harry as if begging him to say that Boden was wrong.

 

“Bo is right.” Harry said as firmly as he could manage with a smile on his face. “Santa won’t come here if any of you are still awake!”

 

“But I’m too excited to sleep!” Loren complained.

 

“You’ll sleep.” Blaise muttered under his breath. “Daddy needs to regain some sanity.”

 

Harry couldn’t fight the smile that broke out over his face.

 

“I’ll read you a story.” Nasta said. “Watch your film first.”

 

“Where are the sextuplets?” Harry asked, looking around for his set of six, sixteen month olds.

 

“Dad Draco took them up to bed, they were flagging.” Braiden told him from one half of Boden’s lap…Rowan was taking up the other half.

 

“You two look just as tired!” Harry laughed. “Perhaps you need an early night too.”

 

“They’re like two peas in a pod.” Boden teased with a grin.

 

“Take them up to bed.” Harry insisted. “I need you all to be alert and awake tomorrow!”

 

“We wouldn’t be so tired if Boden wasn’t so insatiable.” Rowan muttered.

 

“I heard that!” Harry exclaimed sternly and Rowan blushed to the roots of dark brown hair.

 

Harry laughed. “What you do behind closed doors is no one else’s business.” He told them gently. “You have your own house, you’re mated and you have a baby on the way.” He said with a fond look to the gentle swell of baby belly. “You’re all adults, go crazy.”

 

“You don’t say that to me!” Calix complained.

 

“Mum said ‘adults’, Calix.” Tegan cut in, quick as a flash. Her special brand of wit truly left something to be desired. She was in her pyjamas and a thick winter robe, her tousled hair was still damp from her bath.

 

“Shut up, Tee.” Calix said. “We’re all eighteen in a week, we’re all of age and soon we’ll be of age in the Muggle world too. We are adults.”

 

“You don’t act like one.” Regan piped in.

 

“Stop it. Honestly you’re worse than the little kids.” Harry sighed. “Put this film back on.”

 

Harry sat down and watched the end of the film with his excited children pressed in close to him and he held as many as he could as the excited buzz of a dawning Christmas Day loomed over them.

After the film ended it took over two hours to get the kids into bed and that was when they’d all been bathed early and were already in their pyjamas.

Nasta was reading story after story, Harry was tucking in and re-tucking in numerous kids and Draco and Blaise had gone back to wrap the last of the presents. Max was still in the kitchen.

 

“Get into bed!” Harry said exasperatedly as three giggling girls poked their heads out of their bedroom door.

 

“But we can’t sleep, Mummy! It’s almost Christmas.”

 

“I know!” Harry said. ‘And I still have a fuck ton to do before morning.’ He added mentally as he looked at his watch and midnight ticking ever closer. “Bed, now.”

 

He took the seven year olds hands and tucked them back into their beds. He kissed their foreheads and left again and for the first time, there wasn’t another child on the landing, waiting for him to come out of a bedroom.

Nasta eased out of the two year old girls’ room, Loren tucked up with them after their story and the two of them shared a grin and Harry gave a silent thumbs up. They embraced and kissed heavily.

 

“Here’s hoping they stay down.” Harry said as they broke apart.

 

Nasta wrapped his arms around his back and Harry sighed, resting against his mate’s strong chest.

 

“Have I made everything worse?” He asked almost silently. “I just wanted to help. It’s been a year, I couldn’t see him unhappy for a second Christmas, Nas. I just want him to be happy.”

 

“It might all work out for the better.” Nasta said quietly, kissing the top of his head. “We need only wait and see.”

 

Leolin came down the stairs and onto the same floor as them and he grinned as he saw them. He came and threw both his arms around both of his parents.

 

“Where’s Nico?” Nasta asked. “I haven’t had a chance to hold my only grandchild yet today.”

 

“I’ve finally handed Nico back and mother and baby are all tucked up in bed together.” Leolin laughed. “Thank Merlin, my arms are aching!”

 

“Nico isn’t all that heavy, Leolin.” Harry told him. “Now your brother Mace on the other hand, now he was a big baby.”

 

Leolin poked his tongue out and Harry laughed. This playful side of Leolin rarely came out, even when he was a baby he was always more predisposed to scowling, but Harry loved the playful, slightly childish side of Leolin.

 

“I need tea.” Leolin groaned. “That baby is a hellion!”

 

“Like most five month olds are.” Harry laughed.

 

“Let’s go and get you some tea.” Nasta said with a fond smile.

 

Harry followed Father and son down to the kitchen and though Max had calmed down somewhat, he maintained an air of stony silence.

 

“What’s happened?” Leolin asked, looking between them both. He was getting more perceptive the older he got. “You two were all loved up a while ago.”

 

“We had a disagreement, that’s all.” Harry said and left it at that as he boiled the kettle and set up cups to make tea. He made one for Max too, because he refused to be so petty as to not make him a cup of tea over an argument. They’d been through worse, so much worse, during their mateship and a mere argument wasn’t going to break them.

 

He squeezed a massive glob of honey into his tea and he grinned like a child as he stirred his tea vigorously. He took a deep drink and let out all of his tension and breath in one go. He did love honey in his tea.

He sat at the kitchen table and with an innocent grin, he started playing footsie with Nasta under the table.

Max groaned as he swiped all the peelings into their food recycling bin and seized his cup of tea and all but drained it in four massive gulps.

 

“I needed that.”

 

“Are you done with the veg?” Harry asked.

 

Max sighed, debating whether or not to stay angry, but thankfully he let it go. Max could never hold a grudge if there was no anger or shouting going on.

 

“Yes. All the veg is done and prepared, the beef and pork are cooked, the soup is made and that show stopping cake you made is warded tighter than our bank vault. It’s just the turkey that needs to be cooked tomorrow and the veg needs to be boiled and then roasted, but other than that. I’m done!”

 

Max sunk down into a chair next to Nasta and Harry’s foot caught him. He peeked under the table and his biggest mate couldn’t help the laugh when he saw what was going on. Harry shifted himself so that he had one foot in Nasta’s lap and one in Max’s. He remembered to smile all innocently, if not a bit smugly that he’d won Max around and had made him laugh again.

 

“What’s so funny?” Leolin asked curiously.  

 

“Your Dad is daft.” Harry said without missing a beat. “Ignore him, love.”

 

Leolin didn’t look convinced, but he let it go. At eleven at night, Max and Nasta were shepherding their teenagers into bed and still Farren hadn’t come home.

 

“It’s almost Christmas, maybe I should go and look for him.” Draco said as he and Blaise shifted the furniture into the smaller living room so that they could fit all the piles of presents into the much larger family room. Everyone would sit on the floor for Christmas, there just wasn’t enough room for furniture and all of them with their presents.

 

“He’s almost eighteen, he knows where we live.” Harry said, though truth be told, he was worried too. Farren had been gone for five hours now. He wondered if Sasha had actually rejected Farren due to the pain his son had caused him over the last year.

 

He worried for the next half an hour as he and his mates set up the family room with piles of gifts for their thirty-seven children, their two added children in Rowen and Boden, a small pile for their very first grandchild, Nico and a pile each for themselves. Each and every one of them had just one single present that was labelled as ‘from Santa’ and Harry took care to make sure they were in the front of the piles of gifts.

Each child had their own designated spots and as soon as they woke up in the morning, they knew where they were going to be and where their presents would be.

The front door opened and closed, there were two dull thuds as what Harry assumed were shoes were kicked off and then a mountain came tearing through the room and Harry found himself tackled and lifted off of his feet.

 

“Mum, you’re a genius!” Farren exclaimed happily, a wide grin on his face.

 

“Oh, well, okay love, but if you squeeze any tighter I’m going to snap in half.” Harry said, patting his son’s shoulder.

 

Harry was put on his feet again and Harry couldn’t help smiling himself as he saw that blinding smile directed at him.

 

“I take it things went well with Sasha?” Harry asked, unable to hold in his curiosity. He’d never been able to rein in his curiosity.

 

“Amazing! I ran straight to his house, of course his oldest brother opened the door and tried to stop me from seeing Sasha, but he heard me and came running. We talked a lot and then we…then we made up.”

 

“Yeah, I think you can keep that bit of information to yourself.” Harry laughed. “I’m glad you’re happy again, Farren.”

 

“I’m staying with Sash. He said he can handle the meetings as long as I always come back to him and I will. I love him. He’s hated this last year apart too, just as much as I have.”

 

“You’re an adult now, Farren, we won’t tell you or Sasha what to do.” Nasta said softly.

 

“So, are we having one more for dinner?” Max asked.

 

Farren shook his head. “No, we’re going to ease back into everything. We, uh…we rushed the making up, but he’s got Christmas plans, I’ve got plans. I’m going to see him tomorrow night if that’s okay. To give him his gift.”

 

“You bought him one?” Blaise asked in surprise.

 

“Of course. I never stopped writing him and I’ve got two Christmas and two birthday gifts to give him.”

 

Max looked worried and unsure as they heard that shocking news, but Harry took a breath and touched his son’s face. “We love you, sweetheart. Whatever you want to do, we’re behind you. Your family is behind you, always.”

 

Farren grinned and then he looked around and noticed the presents. His grin got wider.

 

“Hey, hey, hey!” Blaise clapped his hands. “No peeking at the room before the big day, you know that rule by now! Get your backside up those stairs and into bed!”

 

Farren laughed before he kissed Harry’s cheek again and then rushed off. Harry released a breath that he’d been holding.

 

“Before anyone says anything…I regret nothing.” He said still looking at the door Farren had run out of. “Whatever the outcome, my son is happy and I will do my all to keep him happy. He deserves love and happiness.”

 

“Will you stop waffling on and hand over the next sack of presents so we can get this done before two in the morning, please?” Max demanded as he went back to shifting gifts into piles.

 

Harry smiled and took that to mean that Max had forgiven him, for now at least, and he hefted the black bin bag over to Max and helped him separate it out into the forty-five different piles.

Christmas Eve was drawing to a close and soon Christmas Day would be upon them, their babies would be waking up in just a few short hours, screaming and screeching in delight and excited joy, waking up the entire house and they needed to be ready for it.

The dining room table was laid, Harry had done that himself earlier in the day. The house was spotless, the dinner was prepped and ready to go, their children were all happy, even Farren, and their presents were laid out in the spectacularly decorated room. Harry sighed. It was going to be a hectic day tomorrow, with very little sleep to be had and no rest either, but it was going to be absolutely perfect, because he was in his own home, with his own family and he would be surrounded by those he loved. Things didn’t really get much better than that and he knew that as long as he had the important things, a home, food and his family, everything was going to work out just fine, regardless of life’s little hiccups along the way.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Christmas Eve, lovelies. I’ve done so many Christmas Day Bits that I’ve decided to do something a bit different this year and I went with Christmas Eve instead. I’m not properly off of my break yet, that’s still going to be in the New Year, but I wanted to give you all an early present for tomorrow by giving you this chapter, I hope you like it.
> 
> Stay safe, lovelies and I’ll see you again in the New Year, once my little break has ended, until then have a good one!
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	49. New Year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Year – 2016
> 
> Nasta – 55 years  
> Max – 49 years  
> Blaise – 36 years  
> Draco – 35 years  
> Harry – 35 years  
> -  
> Braiden – 18 years, 4 months  
> Quintuplets – 18 years  
> Eva and Ave – 16 years, 11 months  
> Taren – 15 years, 10 months  
> Lai – 15 years, 2 months  
> Xabiere – 13 years, 10 months  
> Mace and Evie – 13 years, 1 month  
> Mollie – 12 years, 8 months  
> Quadruplets – 11 years, 9 months  
> Senna and Serra – 8 years, 7 months  
> Lian – 8 years  
> Triplets – Phoebe, Neave, Luce - 7 years, 5 months  
> Loren – 6 years, 2 months  
> Cyneric and Kallan – 5 years, 3 months  
> Sully – 3 years, 3 months  
> Triplets – Rosalia, Nia, Vanora – 2 years, 6 months  
> Sextuplets – 16 months  
> -  
> Nico – 6 months

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry cleared away left over birthday cake and collected several empty glasses from hidden alcoves on bookshelves and under tables.

 

“Why can’t people use the topside of a table?!” He complained loudly to his four mates, who were all in the room with him, doing their own cleaning.

 

“They’re teenagers, nothing they do makes sense.” Max said back as he used his wand to get a splodge of something out of the carpet.

 

Their only set of quintuplets had celebrated their eighteenth birthday today and it was the New Year in just two hours so the younger kids were all in bed already and their older kids were either taking naps or milling around upstairs, waiting for midnight to come around.  
Christmas had been hectic too and Harry was already exhausted. Their Lian had celebrated his eighth birthday just a few weeks before and in eighteen days, their terror twins Eva and Ave turned seventeen. As if their Dracken inheritance hadn’t been bad enough last year, this year, they were planning on going into talks with the Dracken Elders. They both wanted to hold their meetings next year, when they were eighteen and though the five of them had tried to convince the two girls otherwise, they wanted to hold their meetings together. They argued that they’d done everything together for their entire lives and they wanted this milestone to be the same.

Harry hoped that the Elders could talk some more sense into them because if the two of them had their meetings at the same time then it would be an utter bloodbath and he was truly afraid that it would be one of his baby girls paying the ultimate price in the end at the hand of her own twin sister.

He sighed and pushed the thought from his mind. A muffled grunt came from the baby monitor and he sighed heavier. He was already halfway out the door when a soft, confused cry of ‘Mama’ came over the monitor, already knowing who it was and what they wanted.

Their tiny Emerus was not doing well with his sleeping and he woke up numerous times during the night to seek reassurance. He was not the most independent of babies and he preferred to be constantly surrounded by adults. He did not like playing by himself or being by himself and he was very clingy. They were trying to encourage him to be a little bit more independent, but their youngest child wasn’t the least bit interested and he remained very clingy and slightly anti-social as he’d much rather clutch at Harry or clench tiny hands into one of his Fathers’ legs than play with any strange children or by himself. He even hesitated when his older siblings tried to lead him off to play.

Harry opened the nursery door carefully and he smiled gently as he saw Emerus stood, holding onto the rail of his cot. Thankfully he hadn’t woken his brothers or sisters yet and Harry scooped him up and carried him out of the nursery before he could. He had long ago learnt that it would be an hour or more before Emerus was ready to even try sleeping again.

 

“What’s the matter, Rus?” Harry asked softly as he carried the sixteen month old boy down the stairs.

 

“Mummy.” Emerus whispered back, holding onto him tight.

 

“Come on, love.”

 

Harry made it back down the stairs and he carried Emerus into the cleaning operation.

 

“You should be sleeping.” Max told his baby son, taking him from Harry and pulling the miniscule boy to his huge chest.

 

Emerus just shook his head and clung to Max tighter.

 

“You’ll be all grumpy.” Blaise tried.

 

“No.” Emerus said as he fisted Max’s shirt.

 

Max sighed and with one hand he picked Harry up and sat him on the settee, he dumped Emerus on him and went back to cleaning the house.

All of their children were home and under the same roof for the festive season, including Braiden and his two mates, Rowan and Boden. They were expecting their first child in just a few short months. Their second grandchild after Nico, who was now six months old and sleeping in a cot just upstairs.

He sighed again, feeling very old despite only being thirty-five. He cuddled with Emerus, humming gently to try, fruitlessly, to lull him into sleep. He had thirty-seven children and a grandchild with another one on the way. If Eva and Ave got their wish too then he’d have even more on the way in twenty-seventeen. If his Farren got his boyfriend, Sasha, pregnant in that time too, then he could have even more grandchildren coming his way, but for now, it was just Nico and his Braiden’s unborn baby.

Speaking of Farren, the front door opened and closed and two laughing boys were heard in the hallway. Farren walked into the room first, followed by his younger brother, Mace. They’d been out for a late night run. Harry had been worried as they’d both gone out at nine in the night, in shorts and tee-shirts and despite the fact that there was no snow or ice on the ground, it was still cold and wet.

 

“Are you both okay?” He couldn’t prevent himself from asking worriedly.

 

“Fine, Mum.” His thirteen year old Mace said, his head and neck dripping with sweat. “Farren set a punishing pace, I could barely keep up! I’m so hot.”

 

“I thought I heard you both.” Nasta said as he came into the living room with two chilled bottles of water from the fridge.

 

“Cheers, Dad. You’re a legend!” Mace told him as he ripped the top off the bottle and gulped. Harry had to turn his head to keep from laughing. Max, who was opposite him cleaning, was biting his lip and still smiling.

 

“My legs are a lot longer than yours.” Farren told his brother, ruffling his hair.

 

“Enjoy it while it lasts.” Mace grinned like the snotty younger brother he was.

 

Mace was only just thirteen years old and already he was five foot nine. Farren had only been five foot six at thirteen. Mace was gearing up to be much taller than his older brother.

 

“Have you warmed down?” Nasta asked Mace.

 

Their son nodded, even as he gulped more water down.

 

“Then shower and bed please, Mace.”

 

Mace nodded as he gulped quicker, finishing off the bottle and then coming to Harry and giving him a kiss.

 

“Night, Mum.” He said.

 

“Night, Mace.”

 

“Ace!” Emerus called out, holding out small hands.

 

Mace kissed his baby brother and ruffled his hair. “Goodnight, Emerus.”

 

Mace skipped out and that left just Farren and he seemed nervous.

 

“Has Sasha come over yet?” He asked.

 

“Not yet, love.” Harry answered. “But you did tell him to come over in another half an hour because you were going running. I wouldn’t start worrying until then. Sasha was always punctual.”

 

“What if he doesn’t come?”

 

“He’ll come.” Harry said with a casual conviction.

 

“And this is alright? You’re sure this is alright?”

 

“It’s fine.” Harry insisted.

 

“Of course it is.” Max smiled, grabbing Farren before their son could escape and using his bigger, stronger body to force Farren’s head to his lips for a kiss.

 

“Ack! Dad, that’s gross!” Farren complained, rubbing not just the spot where Max’s lips had touched, but all over his face.

 

“You let your Mum kiss you.” Max said with a grin.

 

“That’s completely different!” Farren whined.

 

“Go and grab a shower.” Harry said with a laugh, distracting Farren. “You don’t want to smell bad for when Sasha gets here.”

 

Farren’s teal coloured eyes widened and he looked at himself, looked at the time and then he ran off. Harry chuckled and went back to rocking Emerus, trying to lull him into sleep.

 

“I don’t see much cleaning going on.” Harry said mildly.

 

His four mates scowled at him, but he just laughed lightly at them and he went back to humming and rocking Emerus.

They set up the house yet again for another party, a different party, as they got ready for the New Year. They’d never really bothered with New Year in the past, when their quintuplets had been younger. It had just been them on their own and after the clean-up from the quintuplets party, they’d usually just crawl into bed together and share a kiss at midnight if they were actually still awake…or they’d make love together if they were lucky and feeling particularly alert and awake, which hadn’t been all that often with so many little kids running around.

But now that their older kids were teenagers, adults, they’d hold a small ‘mini’ party for them to celebrate the New Year in. It was a hassle to have a massive birthday party, clean up a bit, then set up another party, but they could manage it.

The door knocked and Nasta turned to answer it quickly, a slightly evil grin on his face as he got to the door before Farren, who was just clattering down the stairs as Nasta pulled open the front door.

 

“Hello, Sasha.” He greeted easily.

 

“Hello, Mister Delericey.” Sasha said, a bit awkwardly. This was the first time since their break up that Sasha had been back to their home.

 

“Nasta.” Nasta reminded him softly. “Nothing has changed in that respect, Sasha. Please come in.”

 

Farren jumped the last few stairs and almost elbowed his Dad out of the way to reach his boyfriend and Nasta rolled his eyes and left them to their own devices.

 

“Sasha?” Harry questioned as his oldest mate came back into the room.

 

Nasta nodded. “Yeah. He’s looking better than the last I saw him too. Happier.”

 

“Farren does too.” Harry said as he continued rocking Emerus.

 

“Is he asleep?” Max asked.

 

Harry peeked at his son’s face and tentatively stopped rocking him. Emerus made a soft noise and wriggled and Harry immediately started rocking him again and Emerus settled down again.

 

“No. He needs another half an hour.” Harry said as he swayed from side to side while sat down.

 

“How’s your stomach?” Blaise asked critically.

 

Harry bobbed his head from side to side in consideration. “Alright I guess. It’s not hurting any worse than it was this afternoon.”

 

“You were sick this morning, don’t push yourself.” Nasta told him.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m afraid I might be stealing an early night, lovers.” He said with a sigh.

 

“That’s okay. It’s okay.” Draco told him as he came back from the kitchen after taking another tray of dirty glasses and plates out to the sink, where Max had charmed the sink and a dish brush to clean and dry all the dishes.

 

“Draco’s right, if you need to go to bed, go to bed.” Max insisted. “We don’t like it when you’re so sick and in so much pain. The sextuplets really took it out of you.”

 

“I wasn’t expecting six of them, that’s why.”

 

“You were expecting six and that was the problem.” Blaise countered and it took Harry a moment before he got the joke and he laughed.

 

“I love them, every single one of them and I’d have it no other way, but on the other hand, I sincerely hope that I _never_ have another set of sextuplets.”

 

“I second that.” Blaise answered.

 

“I’d go one further and say nothing over twins or triplets from now on.” Max chuckled. “I’ve had enough of these high multiples. Those first few months of hell are killers! I’m getting to be an old man, I need my beauty sleep without getting up twice, three times in the night to feed four, five, six newborns before I can get back into bed.”

 

“No promises.” Harry laughed. “I have no control over that.”

 

Max nodded solemnly before he got that mischievous look on his face. He knelt down by Harry’s feet and petted low down on his stomach.

 

“No more higher multiples, please.” He beseeched Harry’s stomach and Harry had to bite his tongue to stop from roaring with laugher and waking up Emerus. He had tears of suppressed laughter running down his cheeks and Max grinned with smug accomplishment as he wiped Harry’s cheeks for him.

 

“I love you so much.” Harry sighed once he got enough breath back to talk.

 

“Good, now is he asleep yet? It’s coming up half eleven and those kids are going to be down here soon.” Max said.

 

Harry stopped rocking Emerus, his face screwed up with fervent hope and he let out a sigh of relief when his sixteen month old did not wake back up again.

 

“You amazing god.” Max praised him. “Now chuck him back into his cot, I want to ravish your mouth at midnight.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes and he climbed the stairs and he got Emerus back into his cot in the nursery. He tucked his youngest child up and kissed his chubby cheek. He did the same for the five other sixteen month olds in the room, his boisterous Eiren and his identical twin, and slightly calmer son, Eurei. His little perfectionist in Errai, he thought fondly as he pushed the blond hair from his eyes to give his forehead a kiss. Then his two baby girls, the bossy Eris and his sweet, observant Ellette.

He loved all six of them and he smiled softly as he closed the door to the nursery on them, the silencer ward humming to life as the door was shut tightly so that no external noise could bother his little toddlers.

He sighed happily as he shut the door on them with no crying from within and he made his way back down the stairs…his stomach muscles protested going back down the stairs again so soon after he’d come up them, but in typical fashion, he ignored it.

He went into the living room and he wrapped his arms around the first mate who was the closest to him.

Nasta chuckled and dipped him down and kissed him. Harry laughed happily and lifted his arms up and Nasta picked him up easier, his muscles bulging in his arms. Harry sighed happily as he touched those muscled arms and lifted his head for another kiss.

 

“You’re being very affectionate today.” Nasta told him in a voice deepened by arousal.

 

“I’m always affectionate!” Harry countered.

 

“Except when you’re not.” Blaise laughed.

 

Harry huffed and wrapped himself around Nasta tighter. Nasta chuckled and pulled Harry into a hard, wet kiss and then he put him down on the settee and went back to what he was doing before Harry had mobbed him.

Harry slipped back to his feet and went to get more cakes and biscuits that he’d specifically kept back from the eighteen year olds’ birthday and he set them out ready for the mini New Year party they were going to have very soon.

All of their older children, as young as Taren, came down as an almost mass group, which meant they’d probably been in the ‘teen lounge’ waiting for midnight to come closer.

Braiden immediately sat down on the settee, his mate Rowan tucking into his side while Boden did his part as top dominant and went to get the three of them drinks.

Leolin looked ready to drop as he rested his head back against the chair he was sat in and Farren and Sasha seemed to be in their own little world as Sasha was buried so deep in Farren’s lap and chest that the poor boy could barely be glimpsed from the bulk of Farren’s arms that were wrapped tightly around him, as if Sasha were going to vanish before his very eyes and he had to hold on for dear life. They were ignoring everyone else in the room.

 

“Would anyone like tea?” Tegan asked. “Mum?”

 

“Please, darling.” Harry smiled.

 

“Dad, green tea or herbal?” Tegan asked Nasta, already knowing that her Father would take tea over the juice or water on offer.

 

“Green tea, _Caru_.” Nasta answered with a smile.

 

Tegan went to make tea for herself and those who’d wanted them and Harry snatched one of his own biscuits and he forced himself between Draco and Blaise, seeing as every other available seat had been taken up and he definitely didn’t want to sit near Farren and Sasha, who had a whole settee to themselves.

 

“What’s the point of New Year?” Calix asked curiously.

 

“I never saw the point in it.” Max said. “Except to be around family, of course.”

 

“It’s traditional.” Draco insisted.

 

“We always saw it as a drinking holiday.” Blaise shrugged. “My Mother, your grandmother Marianna, would always let me have wine at New Year. She’d get completely drunk with whatever partner she had at the time, of course.”

 

“Sometimes, a New Year means a new chance, a new life. Every year is different in one way or another and we never have two the same. Sometimes, that’s a blessing, sometimes it’s not, but sometimes, it’s a relief to start a new year. To know that you can wipe the slate clean and start again with a fresh start to try and do things differently.” Harry said with a sad smile.

 

His children all nodded as if they’d heard something profound, but his mates all shifted a bit closer to him or touched him in some way. They knew what he meant and they all tried to comfort him.

 

“I think Farren and Sasha are getting the new lease life this year.” Regan said as he watched the two of them look up at their names.

 

“I’ll toast to new lives and second chances.” Farren said and Sasha smiled at him.

 

“Me too.” He said as he snuggled even closer into Farren with no shyness and no shame. They’d missed each other too much for wasting time being shy. It was cute.

 

“You might create a new life this year.” Taren told them.

 

Sasha blushed and Farren baulked. “I think we’ll leave that to Braiden.” He said, removing the attention from himself and Sasha and putting it on his older brother and his mates.

 

Harry shook his head and accepted the cup of tea off of his oldest daughter and settled in, watching indulgently as his children chatted together and he felt no need to join in. He was very happy to just watch and listen to them.

 

“Are you okay?” Max asked him.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m fine. I’m just…enjoying them. They’re all getting older, they’re all going to be flying the nest soon. I don’t like it.”

 

His mates chuckled. “Of course you don’t like it.” Max said.

 

“It has to be done.” Harry sighed. “It’s natural after all.”

 

“Doesn’t mean we have to like natural.” Blaise said as he looked over to where Braiden sat on the settee, his two mates with him and the bulge of his growing daughter between them. “He’s my son…my first child, how am I supposed to say goodbye?”

 

“As you said goodnight to him every night since he was born.” Nasta said with a smile. “He’s not going away forever, I’ll eat my own wings if he’s not back next week to visit. Say goodbye as you said goodnight to him, he’s going to sleep and you’ll see him in the morning, when he wakes up.”

 

“You are creepily clever sometimes.” Blaise told Nasta fondly.

 

“It comes with age.” Max cut in quickly. “And Nasta’s one ancient dragon.”

 

Harry laughed, loudly. He couldn’t stop himself as he laughed, a deep, belly laugh.

 

“Oh ow! That hurts!” He cried as he held his pained belly, but he was still laughing between gasps of pain.

 

Several hands touched and rubbed his belly and sides, easing away the pain and discomfort that his sextuplets had left him with, even after sixteen months since he’d birthed them. He was positive that this pain was the reason that he hadn’t had another heat period since his sextuplets. Unlike his mates, he didn’t believe that the sextuplets had taken so much out of him that he would no longer have any heat periods. He believed that as soon as he healed and his body healed, then he would have another heat period. It was just a matter of resting and recovering.

He wasn’t in any rush to have any more children just yet though. He knew that he was going to have his hands full with his sextuplets. It had been hard with Braiden and the quintuplets, but he’d been a lot younger back then and his six had been the only children that he’d had for a time…now he had thirty-one children to look after as well as the sixteen month old sextuplets. True some of his older children were teenagers and Braiden was in his own home, but most of his children still needed his complete and undivided attention, so no, he was happy to have a bit of down time, even if he was sick and pained sixteen months after birth and normal things such as laughing or even eating caused him pain on occasion.

 

“It’s almost midnight!” Taren said excitedly. 

 

Harry looked at the clock and he smiled.

 

“Calm down, jackrabbit.” Max soothed.

 

“Don’t call me that, Dad!” The almost sixteen year old Taren whined.

 

“I have nicknames for all my babies.” Max insisted.

 

Harry smiled and he rested more of his weight onto Draco, who wrapped both his arms around him and his strong, sure fingers rubbed at his belly and hips to ease away the dull, throb of pain.

 

“Is it time yet? Is it?” Taren asked, almost vibrating with excited energy.

 

“Almost.” Nasta said indulgently. “Another two minutes.”

 

“I can’t wait that long!” Taren exclaimed as his siblings smiled or laughed at him.

 

“Not long, Taren.” Harry said softly, even as he yawned widely.

 

“Are you tired, Mum?”

 

“I’m always bloody tired.” Harry complained. “It comes with having thirty-seven kids, a grandchild and another one on the way.” He added with a smile towards Braiden and his mates.

 

“You love it, don’t try to pretend that you don’t.” Blaise insisted.

 

Harry grinned and looked at the clock. “I think that’s twenty seconds.” He reminded.

 

Of course that sent Taren into an excited spin and he watched the clock, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

 

“Ten!” He called out. “Nine!”

 

The other children joined in and Harry smiled as he watched them counting down to midnight.

 

“Three. Two. ONE!!!” They shouted together. “Happy New Year!”

 

Harry’s mouth was fought over by his four mates, he got Draco’s lips to his own, Blaise’s lips to his ear, Max’s to his cheek and Nasta kissed his neck.

Harry chuckled and held his four mates close. He looked around to see Braiden and Boden hugging Rowan between them, making room for the bulge of baby belly and the three of them looked so happy together. Farren and Sasha looked like they’d never come up for air.

 

“Happy New Year, my loves.” Harry said softly. “I hope this one goes even better than the last.”

 

“We’ll make sure that it does.” Nasta replied with a smile. “Our love for one another and our children will get us through anything.”

 

“We’ve been through worse.” Blaise reminded them. “We got through it to now, we’ll be fine.”

 

“We’re always fine in the end.” Max said with a wave of a massive hand before he kissed Harry soundly. “Happy New Year, gorgeous.”

 

“Right back at you, handsome.” Harry chuckled.

 

Taren came over and he clambered over Max and Blaise and hugged Harry carefully. He kissed Harry’s cheek before resting on him.

 

“I swear you’ve regressed.” Harry laughed. “Come here, baby.”

 

“You can’t regress if you haven’t grown up in the first place.” Taren told him cheekily.

 

“Too true, my son!” Max boomed.

 

Harry laughed lightly. “He takes so much after you.” He directed at Max.

 

“Don’t hurt, Mum.” Tegan chastised her brother sternly, a fierce scowl on her face.

 

“I’m alright, he’s fine.” Harry insisted.

 

“You’d say that even if you weren’t.” Leolin told him with a heavier scowl than his sister.

 

“Look at this.” Harry declared to Nasta. “All of your children are scowling at me!”

 

“It’s because he’s miserable.” Max said seriously.

 

“What about me?” Regan demanded.

 

“And me.” Taren piped up.

 

“You don’t count, you’re my babies.” Harry said as he petted Taren’s fluffy hair.

 

There were shouts from his other children and Harry laughed, trying to stave off the yawn at the same time.

 

“I think you need to get to bed.” Nasta said quietly.

 

“I won’t argue that.” Harry said with a smile. “Happy New Year, lovers.”

 

Harry shared a kiss with all four of his mates and then his children, including Boden, Rowan and Sasha.

 

“I’m heading up kids. Don’t stay up too late.” He said before he let Blaise carry him up the stairs to their bedroom.

 

Harry snuggled down into the bed and Blaise kissed him. “I’m going for a shower, I’ll be back soon.”

 

“I’ll probably be asleep by then.” Harry smiled.

 

“That’s alright, I’ll be quick so I can beat Max into the bed and spoon up behind you.”

 

Harry chuckled and he sighed relaxing down in the bed, trying not to aggravate his already sore and protesting stomach muscles. Twenty-fifteen had been a mixed barrel of good and bad. He hoped that twenty-sixteen was better and he hoped that he healed up more than he already had, because it seemed to him that, despite the physical caesarean wound healing, that he had healed very minimally in sixteen months.

He closed his eyes and he tried to empty his mind of thoughts. One minute he was awake and wondering what the next year would hold, the next he was fast asleep in the bed, getting a decent amount of sleep before the early morning, when Emerus would be getting back up again for more attention. They really needed to try and get Emerus some much needed independence with the New Year.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy New Year, lovelies. A little late on the mark, but I fell asleep, so, yeah. A little late, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.   
> I’ll hit off the New Year now with The Black Heir in a couple of days, then another Scaled Bits chapters and maybe even some added chapters for The Pride of the Lions. It’s about time I sorted that fic out and turned it from a teaser to a WIP. I also want to finish Lycanthrope Factory before the Spring, so I’ll be focusing on the last few chapters of that too.  
> Anyway, Happy New Year, lovelies. I hope you’re all happy and healthy and I wish you all the best for the New Year, lovelies!
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	50. Strength

Strength

 

Harry woke up very rapidly, his vision blurred with sleep still, but there was a bad taste in his mouth and he was suspiciously breathless as he panted to try and control his own body. He was lying in a bath of his own sweat and he shivered uncontrollably. His stomach suddenly roiled in a familiar way and he crawled quickly out of the bed without waking up any of his mates and he dragged himself to their en suite bathroom on weakened, quivering legs that felt like they were only semi-solid.

He made it just in time for his vision to blur and a cold sweat to break out on his lower back as he dropped to his knees and vomited hard into the toilet.

Harry hardly ever got sick, it had been years since he’d last fallen ill, (not including morning sickness as that wasn’t truly an illness but was instead caused by pregnancy hormones), it was a very rare occurrence for him to be truly sick and he absolutely hated it. All four of his mates were in work today; he’d be on his own with all of their children. He was eternally glad that Leolin was having a ‘sleepover’ with Dain and Kailen at the Faerie city.

He cleaned up after himself before he all but crawled down the stairs and into the kitchen. He dug out Max’s potion case with the help of a chair, because no two ways about it, Max put it as high up as he could to protect the children and Harry was just not that tall.

He swallowed a headache reliever and a potion to settle his stomach before putting it all away and washing up the vials as he waited for the kettle to boil.

He forced himself to carry on as normally as he could manage, he forced himself to make breakfast for everyone and he forced himself to act as normally as he could when his family came down the stairs to start their day. Nasta was saying aloud the schedule for the day, as he did every morning, as he checked on all the children and made sure that they were all eating. None of them noticed that he wasn’t quite himself, or if they did then they didn’t say anything about it. Today was the busiest day of the week for all of them, he’d fallen ill on the worst possible day imaginable. Typical, just typical.

All four of his mates were gone less than an hour later and he was unfortunately getting worse as he tried to do everything that he needed to do at home and look after his thirteen children too. He’d already floo called Dain and told him keep Leolin for another night.

 

“Mummy, you’re not well.” A recently turned six year old Braiden said, looking at him hard.

 

“I’m fine, sweetie.” Harry said in a croak that spoke volumes of how unwell he actually was.

 

He was keeping a bucket near him at all times so he didn’t have to run to the toilet and leave his babies alone and unsupervised, especially a four month old Mollie, who he was still very protective over and who his Dracken still freaked out over as he had lost her two older sac siblings, Cassandra, nicknamed Cassie, and their little stillborn, Jaime.

 

Braiden shook his head. “No Mummy, you’re not well.”

 

Harry smiled at his sweet, perceptive child. “I’ll be okay, love; your Daddies will be home soon and they’ll look after me then.”

 

Harry’s attention was grabbed by a thump and a nine month old Mace, who was sniffling after just bumping his head on the coffee table.

 

“Macie!” Braiden sighed, like he’d heard his Mummy do before he picked up his baby brother and carried him to the settee.

 

Harry could only chuckle as he watched Braiden take care of his brother.

 

“Are you okay, Mummy?” An almost six year old Tegan asked, peering at him closely.

 

“Yes, love, it’s just a cold, I’m sure. I’ll be fine in no time, you’ll see, I’ll be better by lunchtime.”

 

His lie did not hold true however and by the time that eleven O’clock rolled around, he was sweating and panting for breath if he so much as moved from lying down to sitting up. He felt so awful he was considering floo calling Alexander or Myron or Aneirin, or someone, anyone, just so that he could rest his eyes for a moment.

A shrill shriek and he bolted upright, having fallen asleep without meaning to. He peered around blearily and found Eva and Ave battling it out very close to the shuffling Mace.

 

“Girls!” He croaked as loudly as he could. “No fighting, go to separate corners, now!”

 

Eva and Ave glared at one another, then turned pouts to him, but he stayed as firm as he could with the urge to vomit in the back of his mind and a tickling feeling crawling up the back of his throat. He pointed firmly to either corner of the living room and the girls gave up and stomped off to the corners that he’d pointed at.

 

“Mummy, does Momo want to be on the floor?” Calix asked as he turned a frown to him from where he’d been looking at a struggling Mollie in the bouncer on the floor.

 

Harry sighed and moved, panting with the exertion of sitting himself up as fresh sweat broke out on his forehead and neck. He slithered to the floor, almost uncontrollably as he slumped down onto the carpet and he all but crawled to the bouncer.

He fiddled with the straps, his shaky fingers fumbling the locking mechanism until he freed Mollie and set her gently onto the floor.

He only had five daughters, but he’d be damned if they weren’t the more troublesome. They definitely made themselves heard at any given moment as he looked to his quiet little sons and then to the silently fuming twins and to his beautiful, bossy Tegan. Even his barely mobile Mollie was making a racket that was making his forehead throb.

Of course it wasn’t strictly true that all of his sons were quiet and all his daughters were loud as he smiled weakly at his loud and energetic Taren before looking to his softly singing Lai. At least he wasn’t pregnant, he counted that as a massive bonus. Nothing was worse than being this sick while pregnant too.

He couldn’t muster up the energy to get himself back on the settee, so he stayed on the floor. His head was pounding and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. He was jerked awake again by wetness on his leg. Calix had a cup of something and he’d stumbled over a toy and spilt the contents of the cup over his leg. He’d fallen asleep again without meaning to. He really needed some help now, he couldn’t leave his children unsupervised, it was far too dangerous. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to them.

 

“Hungry, Mummy.” Farren whined.

 

Harry patted his head and almost missed as his sight was blurry.

 

“Mummy isn’t well, Farren!” Tegan said stubbornly. “He needs to sleep!”

 

“It’s okay.” Harry said, almost panting.

 

He used the settee to stand up and almost toppled back over as his head swam. He forced himself, with every ounce of stubbornness in his body, to walk himself into the kitchen and make lunch for his children. It was an hour late and he cursed his own body for making his babies starve.

He made up three bottles for Mollie while he was in the kitchen and made a teapot full of tea for himself. He didn’t want to come back into the kitchen at all.

 

“Braiden.” He called out as loudly as he could and bless him, his little boy came running at the sound of his call.

 

“What is it, Mummy? Are you okay?”

 

“Yes, love.” Harry lied. “Here, take these into the room.” He said, handing over a massive twenty carton box of ready-made juices. He could barely lift it and it made his muscles scream, but Braiden took it and carted it off into the living room as easily as if it had been a teddy bear.

 

Harry rested against the countertop and he groaned, trying to finish off what he needed to do before he collapsed. He vomited once into the kitchen bin and he cursed himself.

 

“Tegan!” He called out.

 

Tegan came rushing in next. Harry held out the three bottles for Mollie and a box of biscuits.

 

“Take these for me, love.” He said softly.

 

She nodded her head and just took them and went back to the room. Harry felt like he was dying as he plated up twelve lunches on plastic plates and carried them on a large tray, along with his cup and teapot, back into the living room. It was only a few slices of pizza, some sweetcorn and baked sweet potato, it was all he could manage, but it was like a treat for the kids, who loved pizza, but rarely had it on Max’s monthly menu. Harry had broken that too and he just didn’t care.

 

“Thank you, Mummy!” His babies cheered and he managed a small, strained smile for them.

 

“We eat here?” His tiny Lai asked in puzzlement. They had never before eaten off of their laps or anywhere other than the kitchen or the dining room.

 

“Yes, love. You can eat in here.” Which was breaking Draco’s most enforced, strictest rule. That the kids always, _always_ , ate at the table. Again Harry just didn’t care.

 

He collapsed back down to the floor. Where he dragged his Mollie into his lap and took one of the three bottles that Tegan had put on the coffee table. He tested the bottle, cooled it slightly with magic and then fed her. Not even halfway through her bottle, Harry’s arms started shaking and he had to shift her position to continue feeding her safely.

The kids all drifted back to playing and watching cartoons on the tele after they’d eaten enough of their lunches. Harry burped Mollie and put her back in her bouncer where she drifted off to sleep. Harry picked at the leftovers from the kids plates and sipped at his tea. He wasn’t really hungry, he just needed to stay awake and keeping active was the best way to keep himself more alert.

He needed more potions too, he was feeling cold again, but he was sweating buckets, his stomach was in chaos and he seemed to be gagging on his own tongue, his head pounded with his heartbeat and he was shaking like a leaf, even the smallest movement had his weakened body quivering, but there was no way that he could safely stand on a chair to get the case down now. He couldn’t even move from left to right, let alone stand himself up. He just had to deal with the pounding headache and the constant urge to vomit.

His kids continued to play, running back and forth to the bathroom right next door and Harry was forced to deal with changing nappies, trying not to smell anything as bile coated his tongue and the back of his throat.

Some of the kids dropped for a nap, but Harry couldn’t carry them up the stairs as he usually would have and he couldn’t keep things quiet, so he ended up with babies barely getting a nap and being grouchy because of it. Then Mace had a tantrum because he was overtired and Harry just couldn’t deal with it.

He tried to calm Mace down, he tried to hold his kicking legs, but he got kicked in the face for it because he was too weak to hold onto the thrashing legs.

He let Mace go and settled back against the settee. He stopped Braiden from going near Mace and he made sure Mollie wasn’t in any danger as he let Mace cry himself into exhaustion. He vomited into the bucket he had beside him, his head spinning from dizziness and the cacophony of noise in the room. None of them were getting any of the rest that they desperately needed.

He jerked awake as a cool hand pressed itself into his forehead and he moaned, cracking his eyes open. The blurry face of Max met him and he frowned in confusion. Who had called Max? Had he managed to call Max? Had he let out a distress call? It was too much for him to deal with as his head spiked with pain and he let it go, he was just very glad that Max was here.

 

“You’re sick.” Max told him.

 

Harry nodded weakly. Max helped sit him up slowly and carefully, Harry’s world still tilted on its axis and he swayed, heaving a bit of vomit into his mouth that Max wiped away with a handkerchief he took from his pocket.

 

“What have you taken?” Max asked him very seriously.

 

“Noth…nothing.” Harry managed to say. “Couldn’t get up to the case, safely.”

 

Max picked him up and settled him on the settee and dragged the knitted blanket from the back of it. It had been a gift from Mrs Weasley. It still smelt like the Burrow, even after all these years and it was so very comforting to him.

 

“Have you kids been good?” Max asked them.

 

“Of course we have, Daddy!” Tegan answered. “Though Mace had a tantrum and kicked Mummy.”

 

“I can see.” He replied, looking at the bruise on Harry’s face. He’d thought that Harry might have caught it on the table when he’d passed out. He didn’t like the thought that his son had kicked Harry in the face while he was this sick.

 

Mace was in a corner of the room, fast asleep under a doll’s blanket taken from Tegan’s toy buggy. His twin, Evie, was under the table with a teddy bear and Mollie was in her bouncer, again fast asleep.

 

“Is this lunch or dinner?” He asked, picking up the collection of plates with bits of food still on them and putting them back on the tray that Harry had obviously used to bring them into the room.

 

“Lunch, Daddy. We tried to wake Mummy for dinner, but he wouldn’t wake up.”

 

Max looked to Harry, who had drifted off again and he could understand why the kids couldn’t wake him. Harry was very, very sick.

 

“Why didn’t you call for help you stubborn man?” He sighed under his breath.

 

He got rid of the used dishes and immediately started getting dinner on for the kids. It was going to be late and it looked like they had eaten an entire box of biscuits and drank an entire box of juice cartons. Harry had tried to do as much as he could, but he’d needed help and more rest than he’d obviously gotten.

He got his potions case down and he immediately noticed that two vials were missing. A headache reliever and a stomach settler. He sighed and went back into the room. He needed to know when Harry had taken them in case he wasn’t allowed to take any more.

 

“Dinner will be soon.” He promised his children. He’d put something very quick in the oven. They needed to be put back into a routine and he needed to bathe them and get them fed and into bed. They were going to rebel at having so little quiet time, but that couldn’t be helped.

 

He woke Harry with a gentle shake and those sympathy inspiring eyes cracked open to peer miserably up at him.

 

“When did you have the headache reliever and the stomach settler, love?” He asked slowly and clearly.

 

“‘S’morning.” Harry slurred. “Afore you were all awake.”

 

Max nodded and he uncapped another headache reliever and helped Harry drink it down with a grimace before repeating it with a stomach settler and a fever reducer. He left Harry tucked up on the settee and he went back out into the kitchen, getting beakers of juice for his kids and checking on the food in the oven. Of course Farren had followed him and he was sat at the table, waiting.

 

“It won’t be much longer, love.” He promised. “Has your Mummy been like this all day?”

 

Farren nodded. “He’s been very poorly, Daddy. He kept going to sleep and we’ve been in the room all day.”

 

“Did he change the babies’ nappies?” He asked seriously.

 

Farren nodded. “He gave us lunch and gave Momo her bottles too, but he didn’t play with us at all. He always plays with us all day when he’s well. We didn’t have any naps either.”

 

Max nodded and he sighed. He should have noticed this morning that something was off. In fact he had noticed that Harry was quieter and more subdued, he’d thought that he had been thinking of Cassie and Jaime again, so he hadn’t questioned the quietness. It had only been four months since they’d lost their two newborns and Harry and Mollie had only been home from the hospital for a couple of weeks.

They let Harry have his space as he let them have theirs while they were grieving, and they even grieved together when they needed to. They were getting better, but Harry kept two photos on their bedside table, one of Jaime and one of Cassie.

Jaime had been a stillborn, so he was very pale in his photo, wrapped up in white and blue blanket, a hat on his head and matching scratch mitts on. Sometimes they could convince themselves that he was just sleeping, but they all knew better, Jaime hadn’t even gotten to take a single breath.

Cassandra, affectionately named Cassie by Harry, was awake in her photo. Her big blue eyes blinked at them and she shifted minimally. She had died in Harry’s arms just hours after the photo had been taken.

Max plated up the quick dinner and placed them on the table, Farren already digging in with gusto.

 

“Kids!” He called out.

 

He went into the living room to round up the stragglers and he checked on Mace, Evie and Mollie. They didn’t need a nappy change and they were all sleeping. He sighed and carried the two nine month olds up to bed. They’d probably be awake earlier than usual for their bottles, but he’d deal with that later.

He cleaned up the living room, checking on Harry again, whose fever had thankfully come down a touch so it didn’t feel like Harry was burning up from the inside out.

Blaise took that moment to floo through and he took one look at the scene in front of him and threw his dragonhide briefcase away from him and hurried over.

 

“What is it? What’s happened?” He asked panicked.

 

“Harry’s really not well. I came home to find him passed out on the floor and the kids everywhere.”

 

“With no supervision?”

 

Max shook his head. “I think he would have tried to call someone, but he couldn’t move.”

 

“Did he get this from his fall?” Blaise asked as he cupped Harry’s face and turned it to show the dark bruise in stark relief.

 

“No. Mace kicked him while he was having a tantrum.” Max said unhappily. He hated any of the kids hurting his submissive and he always made sure to tell them that hitting and kicking were not okay.

 

“Where are the kids?”

 

“Eating dinner.”

 

“It’s too…”

 

“It’s late, I know. Harry is in no state to be cooking or even standing. I’m going to take him up to bed.”

 

“I’ll do that.” Blaise insisted as he picked Harry up, who mumbled inaudibly as he was moved. “Does he need any potions?”

 

“No, he’s taken them, he’s good to go to bed and just stay there.”

 

“Has he eaten?”

 

“I wouldn’t have thought so. Then I doubt he feels much like eating at the moment.”

 

Blaise nodded and carried Harry up the stairs and to their master bedroom. He tucked Harry up in their bed and kissed him as Harry moaned at the cool sheets, spreading his body out and touching as much of the coolness of the bed as he could.

Blaise helped him by stripping Harry off and letting his flushed, bare skin touch the bed sheets. Harry rolled around happily and spread eagled himself on the bed. Blaise felt a stirring of lust, but brushed it away by reminding himself that Harry was very sick.

He left the bedroom and went back down the stairs, hearing Max explain what was going on to Draco and to Nasta, who had both arrived home within minutes of one another.

 

“I noticed that he was quiet this morning.” Nasta sighed.

 

“I did too. I thought it was him thinking too hard about Cassie and Jaime.” Draco replied sadly.

 

“I thought the same.” Max told them.

 

“I asked him if he was okay and he nodded. That made me think that it was Jaime and Cassie.” Blaise answered. “I shouldn’t have just taken him at his word. He’s been in that hospital for months, who knows what he picked up!”

 

“It looks like the norovirus to me.” Max said. “A very nasty bug. He needs to stay in bed.”

 

“I told Mummy to go to bed.” Tegan told them. “He wouldn’t listen though and just said it was a cold, but I knew he was sick.”

 

“You’re a good girl, Tegan.” Nasta praised.

 

Tegan beamed and trotted off to watch some cartoons before her bath.

 

“I’ve got the day off tomorrow.” Draco told them. “I’ll look after him and the kids. Just write down what potions he needs to take and when.” He directed to Max.

 

Max nodded. “He’ll be okay in a couple of days. I just wish that he’d told us that he was sick.”

 

“You know what he’s like.” Blaise sighed. “He’s already feeling like a bad parent because of Cassie and Jaime. He hasn’t been able to ask for help since we lost them as it makes him feel worse about himself.”

 

“Blaise is right, we should have questioned his quietness and not just assumed that we knew what it was about.”

 

“Next time.” Draco nodded. “We can’t change what we’ve already done, but we can learn from it and look out for this the next time that Harry’s ill.”

 

“He’s so rarely ill.” Blaise frowned. “It’s strange thinking of Harry as actually ill and not just having a bout of morning sickness.”

 

“Come on. Let’s get this place sorted and get those kids ready for bed. We’ll talk more afterwards.” Nasta encouraged as he turned to the kids and wrangled them up to get ready for a bath. He promised them one film only and then they needed to be in bed and it seemed to work, though they all knew they’d have a fight on their hands once the film actually ended.

 

Max made sure that he had enough potions to cover Harry’s illness and set to brewing more headache relievers. They could always use more headache relievers in their house.

Harry was getting the rest that he needed, the house was being cleaned up and the kids wrangled up and set back into their routine. Now that they actually knew that Harry was sick, they could help him and take care of him. He just wished that Harry went back to feeling comfortable with asking them for help when he so obviously needed it.

It wasn’t his fault that they’d lost Cassie and Jaime and none of them would dream of putting the blame for their tragic deaths on his shoulders. He just wanted Harry to see and believe it. They loved him still, they wanted him more than ever and none of them blamed him for their loss, especially not himself, as the biological Father of both Jaime and Cassie.

Perhaps tomorrow, if Harry was in the right state of mind to hear such things, he’d tell Harry so and make him see that no one blamed him for the death of their two newborns, that they still loved and desired him. He definitely wanted to show Harry that last, he thought pervily as he readjusted himself in his work trousers. He would make things right though, he would make Harry see that what had happened wasn’t his fault, even if they had to give a call to Harry’s old Mind Healer, Sebastian Vasey. He would get Harry better, make him rest and he would make this right. He swore it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

 

 


	51. Days Out and About - Part One - The Zoo

July 2013

 

Braiden – 15

Quintuplets – 15

Eva and Ave – 14

Taren – 13

Lai – 12

Xabiere – 11

Mace and Evie – 10

Mollie – 10

Quadruplets – 9

Ser and Sen – 7

Lian – 5

Phoebe, Neave, Luce – 5

Loren – 3

Cyneric and Kallan – 2

Sully – 10 Months

Rosalia, Nia, Vanna – 1 Month

-

Eleonora – 16

Beatrice – 14

Imogen - 11

Oscar - 7

Everett - 7

Ivy – 5 Months

Days Out and About – Part One – The Zoo

Harry smiled as he picked up his little ten month old child and set him on his hip. He had all of his children gathered around him, pestering him and trying to hurry him along. He was taking them to the zoo today and all of them were so excited and despite it not even being seven O’clock yet, they were all very wound up. Naturally he wasn’t taking them on his own, he had to have his mates with him while doing so, they were everywhere too. Max was making sure that the bottomless, weightless cool bag was fully packed with all the drinks, snacks and sandwiches that he’d made and prepared the previous night; Nasta was making sure that all of the cars were ready and in full working order and Draco was sorting out the first aid kit, which was also bottomless, leaving the wrangling of the exceedingly excited kids to Harry and Blaise.

 

“Are we going now, Mum?!” An incredibly excited thirteen year old Taren asked him, almost bouncing in place.

 

Harry smiled. “Yes, just make sure that you have everything that you need for the car journey, it’s going to take us two hours to get to the zoo, even with magic, and we hope to only stop the once along the way.”

 

“I have my a’tivity book, Mummy.” His three year old Loren told him, showing him the large, thick hard plastic folder that they’d taken the kids to get specially the week before. It had facts, stories, stickers, colouring pages, pop up areas, games and all sorts inside it and it would be a life saver on the car journey. It had been hell trying to keep his kids from touching them since he’d bought them, but finally he could stop trying to hide them in his bedroom and hand them out to shut the little buggers up.

 

“Make sure you keep it with you, sweetheart.” Harry told him as he led them out into the front garden, where the four cars were ready and waiting.

 

All of them could drive now after it had become more of a necessity, but Harry was going to be in the same car as Nasta, with the youngest children, as Nasta wouldn’t be able to sort them out if they cried or needed something because he would be driving. Harry’s own custom red and gold car, that Draco and Blaise always scoffed over, was parked off to the one side, to be left at home while they went out.

There were six extra kids with them today as well, as they had Caesar and Amelle’s six children with them too as the two needed a much needed break and Harry had offered to take the six out for a trip to the zoo, including the six month old Ivy Willow, before his mates could shut him up. The six kids had slept over last night, to be ready for the very early start today. Harry had already floo called Amelle, to assure her that the night had gone perfectly well, that Ivy had been fed and well cared for and that the kids were dealing with the time zone difference really well too.

 

“Right, split up kids, eight of you to a car! I need ten of you with me, though.” Max called out as he went to _his_ car.

 

Harry had made him replace his previous little blue car and get a more practical family car, but Max had been able to choose which one he wanted and he loved his new car as much as his previous, even if it was an eight seater people carrier, that with magic to expand its insides, could happily carry up to fourteen people if it was expanded to its maximum capacity. It was very nearly exactly the same shade of blue as his old car…magic had helped with that.

 

Of course the quintuplets all rushed to Max’s car, not wanting to be split up as it was one of only a handful of times that they’d allowed Leolin to come on a trip with them, even as they’d sent the two year old Faerie twins, Cyneric and Kallan, to spend the day with their Uncle’s Dain and Kailen. They were unaware of what was happening, being too young still and Harry would not risk them in such a public place needlessly; it was bad enough that they were taking their Leolin with them, he’d have collapsed from the stress if he’d had to bring all three of his Faerie babies with him.

Harry gathered up all the babies under five, of which there were ten, and he gently manoeuvred them into their secured car seats and checked them all obsessively, testing their seatbelts and straps and the comfort of their seats. His month old triplets, his ten month old Sully, his three year old Loren, his five year old triplets and his five year old Lian and of course Amelle and Caesar’s five month old Ivy. He made sure that they all had their activity books, naturally the month old triplets, Ivy and Sully didn’t have one as they were too young, before he went and checked on the other cars.

He was unsurprised to find his nine year old quadruplets all grouped into one car, his Saeth already nose deep in his activity book. Amelle and Caesar’s twin boys, Oscar and Everett, who were only a year younger than the quads, as well as Eva and Ave were with them…Draco was going to have a very noisy ride to the zoo, Harry grinned evilly.

Blaise’s large black car had Mace and Evie sat calmly inside, Mace naturally got the front seat because he was so big, even at ten years old he needed the extra leg room that the front seat offered, but Taren was sat behind him, chattering into Mace’s ear, even though Mace seemed to be asleep in his hand. It was quite early; they’d gotten the kids up at five to be ready for seven in the morning so that they could get to the zoo exactly when it opened at ten in the morning.

Caesar and Amelle’s third girl, the eleven year old Imogen, Xabiere and Serra and Senna were also in Blaise’s car. Harry looked between the car that was practically rocking in excitement back to Draco’s silver car with the quadruplets, Eva and Ave and their twin cousins…maybe Draco wouldn’t be the one to have the worst journey to the zoo after all.

Max’s blue car was almost filled to bursting with the quintuplets, Eleonora and Beatrice, Mollie and his tiny, little Lai, who despite being twelve, seemed to always be overshadowed by bigger, taller siblings, even if they were younger. Harry wondered if maybe he should be worried about that, but Lai always seemed happy, healthy and fine. He was sure that it would all work out fine, but he’d speak to his mates about his worries and concerns later, Lai could just be taking after him in height, just because most of his children were tall and slim, didn’t mean that all of them would be after all.

 

“Braiden, love, what car are you going in?” Nasta asked as Braiden was just wandering around the driveway still.

 

“I was going to go in Dad Max’s, but looking at that car, I think maybe I should squeeze in with them.” Their fifteen year old said seriously, looking at the rocking car where Senna was bouncing in anticipation.

 

“You don’t have to, love. You’re not an on call babysitter.” Harry told him. “If they’re too much for your Dad Blaise to handle, we’ll swap some of them over when we stop halfway there. Now get into that car and enjoy yourself.”

 

Braiden grinned and hopped into Max’s car, of which Farren had claimed the front seat, and Harry did his last rounds, making sure that the kids all had their shoes on, (it was surprising how many times they’d gone somewhere only to realise that a child was actually missing a shoe) that all the kids had their activity books, their backpacks, their pocket money for souvenirs and their cameras.

Harry and his mates had a short ‘meeting’ together, checking things off, making sure that they had everything that they thought they needed. They checked with one another that the big cool bag was in the car, that the smaller cool bags were in each car, just in case a child wanted a drink on the way, that the first aid kit was packed and in Draco’s car, that the big pram was in the boot of Nasta’s car, that they had put the nappy bag in the front of the car that Harry and Nasta would be in. They checked that they had their wands, their money, their cameras and everything else that they could possibly think of in which they had practically brought everything but the kitchen sink before they shared a last hug and kisses, got shouted at twice to hurry up, and they slipped into their respective cars to finally get their journey under way. They’d hopefully arrive at the zoo within half an hour of it opening at ten in the morning. Harry couldn’t wait to see his children’s faces and truthfully, he was excited as they were.

Braiden and his quintuplets had been really young the last time they’d gone to a zoo, he himself had been pregnant with Lai at that time and Taren had quite literally only just been born a few months before, Max had carried him around in a sling all day while Nasta had shadowed his every move to make sure that no one bumped him while he was pregnant.

Harry settled himself in the car and he breathed deeply, he’d only given birth a month ago and this trip was pushing things a little, but he wasn’t going to allow anything to stand in the way of his children’s excited happiness, not even himself. They had planned for this trip to be today, inviting their nieces and nephews to join them, and they’d been planning it before he’d even known that he was pregnant with the triplets, nothing was going to ruin today and he hadn’t allowed his mates to cancel their trip either.

Harry spent most of the drive to the service station, that they’d planned in advance to be the half way stop of their drive, looking into the back of the car watching his little ones and keeping them happy, handing out sippy cups and cartons of juice, stopping Lian from putting the stickers of his activity book all over his five year old sister, Neave, getting Nasta to pull over twice for the month old triplets to have a feed and a nappy change and as a result, they were naturally the last to arrive at the service station and half of his kids were swarming over the outdoor play area with Draco watching them closely.

 

“Only twelve minutes apart.” Max commented. “I was worried that it would be longer, did you need to stop often?”

 

“Only twice.” Nasta said as he unfolded the large pram from the boot of the car. Two of the month old triplets went straight in. Blaise had picked up the third and was cradling her in the crook of his arm as Harry unstrapped the other kids, keeping Sully and Ivy with him, one on each hip.

 

“Let’s get them something to eat and drink and get back on the road then.” Harry said. “It might be best to get a table next to the window if we can.” He said with a smile as he looked at the excited kids on the playground.

 

“Come on you lot! You can come back out and play after you’ve had a snack!” Max called out and Draco immediately started herding the little ones back towards them.

 

“Can I have orange juice, Mum?” Jason asked him.

 

Harry smiled at him. “You can have whatever you want…within reason.” He added.

 

“What do you want, Harry?”

 

“Just tea and some toast, please.” He said as he placed Ivy into the pram with his two month olds and took it from Nasta so that his oldest lover could go and get their orders. He herded his younger kids over to a group of free tables. His teenagers immediately filled two of them.

 

Harry sorted out his babies, thanked the kind young woman who jumped up to help him set up two highchairs for Loren and Sully and he made sure that Lian and his older triplets were sitting comfortably on the chairs.

As usual when they went out, they got odd looks, stares and the odd snide comment when one of his babies called him ‘Mum’. He ignored them all as he settled his children and took orders, jotting it all down in a notebook that he always carried with him when they were out.

 

“Braiden, take this to your Dad Nasta, please.” He said as he tore the page off and handed it to his oldest child.

 

“Will the zoo have bears, Mummy?” Ethan asked him excitedly.

 

A man at the table behind his older teenagers scoffed and muttered something to his own family. Harry watched Farren’s head snap around and it was obvious from the look on his face that he’d heard something derogatory.

 

“I’m sure they will have bears, love. Farren will get you a map when we get to the zoo, won’t you, Farren?”

 

His second child turned to look at him and Harry gave him a smile and a raised eyebrow, telling him without words that he didn’t care what anyone else was saying.

 

“Of course.” He said, forcing a smile for Ethan who had turned to look up at his older brother with wide, amazed eyes.

 

Draco came over with a large tray filled with drinks and he handed them out to each person depending on who had ordered what, acting more like a waiter than a Father, but then they were all used to this by now as there was no way that they could remember everything that their children had wanted. Harry was feeding one of the month old triplets her bottle and he had his hands full and he was a little distracted.

 

“Do you want me to put Sully’s juice into a sippy cup?” Draco asked.

 

Harry nodded. “Please, love.” He said with a smile.

 

Draco did as asked and then he went back to the counter to help the others as Max brought over another tray of drinks.

 

“Here you go my little beauties.” He said with a laugh as he gave out the glasses of juice, water and the odd cup of tea to the older teenagers, who fell on the drinks like the bottomless pits that they were.

 

Blaise came over then with snacks and Harry’s plate of toast. It was unbuttered and had a small pot of blackcurrant jam with it. Harry smiled, he wasn’t craving anymore, but he’d developed a fondness for dry toast with blackcurrant jam during his pregnancy with his younger three girls.

 

“I swear we need a better system of getting orders in.” He said, but he was smiling regardless.

 

“Daddy Blaise, can you cut my icy bun, please?” Lian asked as he looked at the small iced Belgian bun. He had a pot of grapes and apple slices beside the bun to appease Nasta, but they had a rule about holidays and day trips, it was all about the kids when they were out and Nasta wasn’t allowed to complain about what they ate or drank as long as they had some fruit or water with it. Nasta had gotten much better at compromising about such things over the years.

 

“Of course, baby.” Blaise said as he turned and used a knife and fork to cut the bun into small, bite sized pieces. The man on the table behind their teenagers grumbled again, loudly.

 

“What’s his problem?” Max asked him quietly.

 

“Us apparently.” Harry answered as he pointedly ignored the man who was craning his neck to see if he’d gotten a rise out of them. “Childish bastard.”

 

Nasta came over with Draco, both with loaded trays, and they handed out snacks, fruit pots and one large slice of watermelon for Mollie, who enjoyed eating it so much that any chance that she had to get some, she took with both hands. Nasta wholeheartedly encouraged and indulged her desire for watermelon.

Their corner was noisy, but only because there were so many of them talking and their children were naturally excited about their day trip. They were hardly shouting, screaming or throwing tantrums, but still they got filthy looks and mutters behind their heads from people walking past about them needing to ‘control their brats’ or Harry’s favourite about ‘people having more children than they could afford’ because they could afford all of their children, but not only that, they could afford to spoil them as well. They all worked hard to provide everything, and more, that their children wanted and needed.

 

“I’m not staying at this table!” The grumbling man had apparently grown tired of none of them reacting to his poor bait as he loudly stood up and made a scene.

 

“So move then.” Farren told him with an eye roll as he turned back to his brothers and sisters and started up their conversation that had been interrupted by the man’s outburst.

 

“Control your rude, anti-social bastards!”

 

Nasta nostrils flared with anger and he stood to his full, considerable and intimidating height of six foot six.

 

“You call our children anti-social, yet in the same breath you use such vile, disgusting language to describe them. They are children, some of them just babies, and you would sink so low as to call them such a derogatory name within their hearing? Who is really the rude, anti-social person here?”

 

“They don’t need controlling.” Harry said calmly. “They are behaving themselves impeccably. They are all sat down and eating happily and they aren’t screaming or shouting. What aspect of that needs controlling? It’s you who needs to learn some self-control and decorum.”

 

“Is there a problem here?” A woman in a uniform came hurrying over to ask them as she noticed the confrontation.

 

“Are you the manager here?” The man demanded.

 

“I am, yes.” The woman said.

 

“I want this riffraff moved so that I can enjoy my meal in peace.”

 

The woman looked to the table of five men and the surrounding tables of thirty-five children, all of whom were staring at her with wide, innocent eyes. Lian had an icing smeared mouth and Harry was feeding another tiny triplet her bottle.

 

“I still don’t seem to see the problem here.” She said after a small pause.

 

“They’re disturbing the peace. Look how many children they have! It’s not normal and they’re all men!”

 

“Oh grow up.” An elderly woman from the table behind their youngest children snapped. “What century are you living in?” She demanded. “These little angels have been perfectly well behaved and they’re all so polite. My Husband and I have had no less than five offers of grapes, chunks of muffin and iced bun and I’ve watched with my own eyes as they all help one another. If only more families were like this one, I wouldn’t fear to go out of my own front door when it gets dark.”

 

“So there is no problem?” The manager asked.

 

“Not from our end.” Max said as he stood up, to his much taller height as Sully held his arms up and whined.

 

He picked up their ten month old son and hefted him over a shoulder to rub his back. He looked very domestic like this and Harry all but saw the manager’s knees melt.

She turned to look at the argumentative man and what could only be his Wife and two children.

 

“I can’t see a problem here.” She told him.

 

“The problem is there! There are forty of them!”

 

“We don’t have a maximum limit on how many people we serve, Sir.” The manager stated flatly.

 

“Why is he angry with us, Mummy?” Senna asked, jam smeared over a soft cheek, halfway towards an ear from the half demolish jam doughnut that currently lay forgotten on a plate.

 

“You ignore him, peach.” The elderly woman said sternly. “Some people don’t have half the brains they were born with or the manners their Mothers taught them.”

 

Farren snorted into his glass of water.

 

“You see!” The man roared at the poor manager, jabbing a finger at Farren, as if he’d done anything at all wrong. “They’re rude, disgusting people and I won’t have my family exposed to _their_ kind.”

 

“Our kind?” Draco asked softly with an arched eyebrow. “You mean because we happen to be gay and in a relationship with one another? Because we are all in love and because we _dare_ to show that love in public? Well we are in love, we’ve been together for over sixteen years now, we live together, we share the same bed and we have thirty-one children and counting, all of them ranging from fifteen to just a month old and we love every single one of them. You’re an ignorant fool and you need to stop interfering in affairs that in no way concern you. You have no opinion or right to judge us so drop the offended attitude because absolutely no one here cares to hear it.”

 

The man gaped like a fish and some of their children giggled at him, but the manager had had enough.

 

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” She said to the speechless man and his family.

 

“Me?” He shouted. “After what these fairies have just admitted to?”

 

“I’m the only Faerie here.” Leolin said before calmly taking a deep drink of his tea.

 

The manager herded away the still shouting, arguing man and his family and Harry thanked the elderly lady and her supportive Husband for standing up for them.

 

“Oh it was nothing, dear.” She insisted. “People like that make my stomach queasy. You young things enjoy yourselves and you have as many babies as you please, these little ones are all so polite and adorable. You must be doing something right.”

 

Harry went back to his tea and toast, unleashing Max and the kids on the poor play area once they were all finished with their snacks as he sorted out the month old triplets and the five month old Ivy, changing them all into fresh nappies two at a time in the baby changing room for the second half of the drive, doing the same for the ten month old Sully.

He’d only just got back to the table with Sully when Loren came rushing in from outside.

 

“Mummy, I need a wee.” He declared loudly.

 

“Come on then.” Harry said as he handed Sully to Draco and took Loren’s hand.

 

“Quickly, Mummy! I really need to go.” Loren told him urgently and Harry nodded, speeding up a little. He’d packed spare clothes and underwear for all of his children, but he didn’t really want to use Loren’s set just an hour into their trip when they hadn’t even arrived at the zoo yet.

 

They thankfully made it just in time and Harry was relieved as he held Loren up to the sink to wash his hands. He took him back to their table, after Loren had giggled over the hand dryer, and he nodded to Nasta.

 

“It’s about time we got back on the road or we won’t have enough time at the zoo.”

 

Nasta nodded back and he finished off his green tea before standing and stretching. “Max!” He called out. “Time to go.”

 

“If you need the bathroom, now is the time to do so.” Harry told his older children and his older nieces, who nodded and made their way to the bathrooms to sort themselves out.

 

Harry accepted the younger children who came bustling in from the playground and he cleaned off their hands and faces with baby wipes and then got Blaise and Draco to take them to the bathroom in small groups while he made sure that they had everything and weren’t leaving anything, or anyone, behind.

They made it back to the cars and Harry got them lined up against the cars they were travelling in and he counted all of them…twice.

He got the babies all strapped up in their car seats, counting them again as he went, and then he went to help get his younger kids all strapped in, again making sure they all had their shoes on still, as Max folded down the pram and put it back into the boot of the car.

The second part of the journey was the longest and most of their younger kids, in his and Nasta’s car, were sleeping, getting in their midmorning naps. It was quiet in their car because of it and Harry looked back now and then, smiling at his little ones and making sure they were all still sleeping and hadn’t woken up.

 

“Are they all alright?” Nasta asked him.

 

Harry nodded, “They’re fine, they’re all napping. Today’s going to be long and hectic though, so we might have a bit of trouble later, there will definitely be some tantrums to come, but hopefully they’ll all just be too excited. It is a hot day, though.”

 

“It’s only going to get hotter.” Nasta sighed. “You did pack their hats, didn’t you?” He asked worriedly.

 

Harry smiled at his overprotective lover. “All of them, even ours.” Harry insisted. “Sunglasses too.”

 

Nasta smiled, but he didn’t take his eyes from the road. “Thank you, _Caru_.”

 

“I wish you could put more sun cream on me later.” He sighed.

 

Nasta frowned, even as he continued looking ahead, always alert. “Of course I’ll put more sun cream on you. I don’t want anyone burning today, especially not the kids.”

 

“No, I meant like this morning.” Harry replied, alluding to when he’d been rubbed down after his morning shower and then smothered in sun cream while still completely naked, before he’d dressed for the day.

 

Nasta laughed then, trying to keep his voice down so that he didn’t wake the napping children.

 

“I didn’t think I needed an excuse to rub you down.”

 

“Oh you don’t, but it was such a nice start to what is going to be a long, arduous day.”

 

Nasta chuckled and shook his head. They had to pull over not five minutes later to air out the car as little Ivy dirtied a nappy and Nasta took the chance to drain an icy bottle of water while Harry changed his little niece over his lap in the passenger seat of the car.

He checked on the others, but they were all still asleep. He made sure the blinds of the car were still covering their faces before he strapped Ivy back into her car seat and they set back off for the zoo.

They had several other mishaps on the way, including their oldest month old triplet Rosalia, refluxing part of her bottle onto herself and needing a change of clothes. As a result of this they arrived later than they’d planned, over twenty minutes late, and the older kids were not happy with them, even as they were distracted with drinks, rolls and vegetable crisps.

 

“What took you so long?” An excited Taren whined.

 

“There are ten babies in this car, Taren.” Harry said patiently. “They all needed bottles, nappy changes and Rosa spit up on herself and needed to be changed. It couldn’t be helped and we’re here now.”

 

“Is she okay?” Taren asked then, worriedly, trying to look for the baby in question as Max and Nasta sorted them out and got them settled into the pram, making sure that none of them needed nappy changes or anything else.

 

“She’s okay now that she’s clean.” Harry insisted.

 

“Mummy, I can hear the animals!” Ethan cried out happily, even as he took another bite of sandwich.

 

Harry smiled at his son’s excitement.

 

“We’ll get inside now, once the babies are sorted.”

 

The big pram was being shared by the triplets and Ivy, who were topping and tailing. Two up the head of the pram and two at the foot, their little feet tangling in the middle. There were two umbrellas on either side of the pram, casting them in cool shade at all times no matter the angle of the sun.

Harry went to carry Sully, as he was still asleep, but Draco took him from him and hefted him up on his own shoulder instead, plopping his hat on his head, handed to him by Nasta, so that he didn’t burn as he napped.

Loren woke up as soon as he was lifted from his car seat and after a moment to adjust and to rub the sleep from his eyes, he got a juice carton from Nasta and he was down on his feet, walking, absorbing the excitement from his older brothers and sisters.

Harry slipped the packed nappy bag over the handlebar of the pram, so no one would have to carry it, and he put the big cool bag and the first aid kit under the pram in the basket.

 

“Is everyone here?” He asked.

 

Blaise, who had done a head count, nodded. “Yeah, all thirty-five of them have been accounted for.”

 

“Then let’s get inside and go exploring.” Harry said, ramping up their excitement as the kids all cheered happily at his words. He turned and pushed the pram towards the entrance, smiling as thirty excited kids followed after him, anxious to get inside.

 

His children cheered louder as the queues came into sight and they ran off to the entrance excitedly, getting into the line to pay. It was going to cost them a fortune to get in, but he didn’t care. Not even when the total for admission came to four hundred and eighty-seven pounds. That was with the under threes being admitted for free too and a fifteen percent discount for being in a group larger than fifteen. He didn’t begrudge paying though, today was for his babies, he didn’t care how much it had cost.

 

“Mum and Dad gave me money for us to come.” Eleonora said, trying to hand over a bunch of notes.

 

Harry held his hands away and he smiled. “No, Nora. Not for the tickets. That money is for you and your brothers and sisters to get gifts and things. Tickets and any food or drink you want is on us.”

 

“Are you sure?” The sixteen year old tried.

 

“Very sure, sweetheart.” Harry answered. “Put it away safe and buy some mementos later.”

 

Eleonora smiled and tucked her wallet away and hurried over to the group of older teens. She was going to spend the day with Braiden and the quintuplets, especially Tegan. The two of them were incredibly close being only six months apart in age.

The first thing they saw as soon as they entered the actual zoo were the penguins in their huge water tank and that was it. The kids made a beeline for them and started hanging over the walls to see them, the younger kids elbowing their way to the front of the glass panels so that they could see too and Harry slipped out his camera to start snapping the first of a thousand or so photos that he’d take today.

The kids had their own cameras and were snapping away too, but where he was taking photos of them, they were taking pictures of the animals. He heard one of his littler ones shriek in delight as a penguin swam past right where she was standing and it made Harry smile.

Blaise was very attentive as he stood over the group of younger children while Nasta supervised the older ones and Draco stood with the teenagers with Sully on his shoulder. Max was sat out of the way with the pram, his hand wrapped around the handlebar, but he was watching them and smiling happily.

 

“Daddy, can you throw me in?” Harry heard Loren ask Blaise.

 

“No, I’m not going to throw you in with the penguins, love.” Blaise laughed.

 

Harry chuckled and looked at all of his children happily. This was a good idea, a month after giving birth or not.

 

“Rest a bit, love.” Draco insisted.

 

Harry kissed him. “I’m okay.” He said. “I’ll sit down when I need to, but it was a long journey. I need to stretch my legs a bit first.”

 

They moved on from the penguins, the kids arguing over what they wanted to see next, but Braiden pulled rank on them and insisted that they went to see the lions. Harry grinned. If it was one love that had followed Braiden from childhood, it was his love for lions. Or for all big cats really. His, now rather worn, stuffed lion, Leonie, was still kept in his bedroom. It was hidden in the depths of his wardrobe, but still, he had kept it.

Sully woke up as they were heading up the wooden ramp towards the lions and after a moment or two to wake up and realise where he was, he let out an excited shriek as he saw the lion and three lionesses sleeping in a huddle. He reached out his arms for them, encountering the glass, and he laid his hands flat on the glass and burbled happily.

 

“These are lions, Sully.” Draco told him.

 

“Ion!” Sully yelled out, slapping the glass, giggling.

 

Harry took a photo of it before turning and snapping some pictures of his mates, Max with the pram, Nasta with a three year old Loren on his shoulders and Blaise keeping a tight rein on the four five year olds, Lian, Phoebe, Neave and Luce.

It was madness as Harry tried to keep the four seven year olds in view. The two sets of twins were entirely troublesome, his own Senna and Serra and Caesar and Amelle’s twins, Oscar and Everett. They were all stood together in a group with the nine year old quadruplets…definitely not a good idea. He’d have to keep an eye on them.

They went through the tigers and the cheetahs, then they went to see an exhibition on special animals, including a serval, who Braiden wanted to take home with him.

 

“You can’t take the serval with you.” Draco told him as he held the three year old Loren back from the fence.

 

“I want one.” Braiden said wistfully. “My birthday’s next month.”

 

“We’re not getting you a wild animal for your birthday.” Draco replied.

 

Harry chuckled with Max, who he was leaning against, sitting on the grass under the shade of a tree as his kids, and nieces and nephews, sat around him, chatting happily and watching the show and listening to the keeper.

From there they went to see the bears for Taren, who climbed up Farren’s back like a monkey so that he could see the enclosure better. Farren grumbled, but he slipped his arms behind him to bump Taren up higher.

 

“They have babies!” Taren cried out as the two cubs tumbled about with one another.

 

Harry took a subtle photo of Taren clinging to Farren’s back before he was distracted by a ten year old Mollie.

 

“Can I have a drink, Mum?” She asked.

 

“Of course you can, love. Max! A drink for Mollie, please.” Harry called out and Max, who’d looked around a little panicked at his shout, let out a visible breath before he bent down under the pram and zipped open the cool bag and he pulled out a bottle of very dilute orange squash.

 

Mollie walked over to get it and she suckled it down gratefully.

 

“Anyone else?” Max asked and he handed out a few bottles of water or squash, and a few cartons of juice before standing back up.

 

They managed to get to the reptile house before they planned to take a small break and Harry ensured that he took the time to pull his mates close so that they could hear him as he talked to the snakes, merely making sure that they were well cared for while also making his mates shiver in pleasure.

 

“I’m so having you tonight.” Max growled into his ear and Harry laughed happily.

 

“You’ll be so tired you won’t even be able to get it up.” He teased.

 

After the reptile house they took a break near a very large wooden play area that was swarming with kids. Their own younger ones joined them as they sat straight on the grass and Max dug out sandwiches, rolls and wraps for their lunches.

The four babies in the pram were taken out to roam the grass…or rather they were let out to lie on the grass as none of them were really mobile yet, Ivy had a go at rolling herself around, but that was easy enough to keep an eye on.

 

“How are you feeling, Leolin?” Nasta asked their Faerie son.

 

“Fine.” The fifteen year old answered. “I don’t feel tired, sick or headachy.”

 

Nasta nodded and handed him a polystyrene cup of tea that he’d just bought from a small shop. Their Leolin loved his tea. Harry accepted his own tea gratefully. Blaise got a coffee and he grinned like one of their kids upon receiving it.

Oscar came running over to them and he thrust his knee in their faces…his grazed, bleeding knee.

 

“Did you fall over, Oscar?” Harry asked as he reached over and dragged the first aid kit from under the pram and handed it to Nasta, who was inspecting Oscar’s knee.

 

“Yeah. I went down the slide and Ev was right behind me and he knocked me over.”

 

“Is Everett alright?”

 

Oscar nodded as Nasta pulled out a plaster and a bottle of antiseptic spray. He sprayed the graze and Oscar made a small ‘ah’ of pain before Nasta placed the plaster depicted with dragons on it over the small graze and sent Oscar on his way again.

 

“First blood to Caesar. He owes me ten galleons.” Max grinned.

 

“You bet on which of the kids would be injured first?” Draco growled.

 

“He started it.” Max insisted. “He told me that our kids would get hurt first because we have more of them. I told him that his kids were so clumsy that it would obviously be his to get first blood. He bet the ten galleons, I just agreed.”

 

“That doesn’t make it better.” Draco insisted.

 

“Let’s not fight here and now. We can argue later.” Harry said, even as he changed Nia’s nappy.

 

“Where are the toilets?” Regan asked, grasping the map from Farren’s hands.

 

He looked for the nearest toilets on the map and then he hefted himself up. He went to the playground first and Harry grinned as he took a gaggle of excited kids with him to the toilets without being asked.

 

“He’ll make a good Father.” Blaise smiled proudly.

 

Farren took a pencil to the map and he marked off where they’d been and planned the route to where they were going next.

 

“Where to next, Farren?” Beatrice asked him.

 

“Red pandas, lemurs and squirrel monkeys are next.” He said.

 

Bea squealed. “Oh I love those tiny monkeys! They’re so cute.”

 

“Have we missed out the spiders?” Calix asked with a frown.

 

“No, they’re with the bugs here, not the reptiles.” Farren told him and Calix perked back up.

 

Harry herded the younger kids back to the patch of grass when Regan got them back and Harry got them all drinks and something to eat. He spooned the jar of puree that Amelle had packed up for them into Ivy’s mouth while Nasta did the same to their Sully and Blaise tackled feeding the triplets, helped by Braiden who took Rosalia from him to feed her and Nora pitched in and grabbed Vanora to feed her too.

After that they were off again, they bought the kids ice creams and slush drinks, they made it around the red pandas, the free roaming lemurs and the free roaming squirrel monkeys, telling Beatrice that no, she could not take the baby one with her. From there they wandered through the giraffes, rhinos, elephants and hippos and then over to the meerkats and the petting zoo. The kids had a hell of a time with the goats, sheep, rabbits and chickens and Harry took so many photos of them as Max was on his haunches, encouraging Sully to touch the goats and not to hide in his shirt.

 

“Loren, don’t do that to the poor rabbit.” Harry chastised sternly.

 

Loren froze, before his eyes filled with tears and he started crying. Harry opened the gate and he went over to him and hefted him up, taking him back out of the petting zoo to where he’d left the pram. He held Loren as he cried.

 

“Mama, want go back.”

 

“No, Loren. You could have really hurt the poor rabbit. You can’t do that to animals or babies.”

 

“I’m sorry.” Loren cried.

 

“You won’t do it again?”

 

Loren shook his head, still sobbing, his nose running. Harry cleaned him up, gave him a kiss and popped him back over the fence, letting Loren run to a goat this time and pet it gently. Harry watched him a bit more closely this time, but he didn’t repeat his earlier actions of trying to pull off the rabbit’s ears.

 

“Mummy, I got a chicken, look!” His five year old Lian giggled, walking over with a chicken clutched in his arms. Lian looked so much like himself that it was almost like looking into a mirror…or at his younger self.

 

“I can see, you hold her gently.” Harry said carefully, even as he snapped a photo.

 

“I am, Mummy. She’s all soft.” Lian giggled as he petted the chicken, who was very content snuggled up in Lian’s arms.

 

Harry smiled as he looked out at all of the animals and his children. He took the pram and he sat on a bench in the shade. It was getting to be rather hot and he was sweating, even with sun cream, light clothes, a hat and sunglasses on he was feeling the heat.

 

“Are you okay, _Bello_?” Blaise asked him.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m fine, love. I just needed to get out of the sun.”

 

“It is rather hot today. Humid too.” Blaise agreed. “The drive home is going to be hell, but at least Max made us park in a shaded area.”

 

“We’ll thank him for that when the car isn’t too hot to touch.” Harry grinned.

 

“We should move them on if we want to do it all before the zoo closes.”

 

Harry nodded and he stood back up. “Kids!” He called out. “Come on, we’re going to the gorillas next.”

 

Imogen hurried over and she didn’t wait for the gate to open, she climbed right over the wooden fence with a grin and she giggled.

 

“I touched all the animals, uncle.” She told him.

 

“Did you take photos too?” Harry asked with a smile.

 

Imogen nodded, touching the unbreakable camera hanging around her neck.

 

Harry counted every single one of them twice, just to be sure. “All thirty-five.” He said happily. “Let’s go and see those gorillas.”

 

He had the pram this time as Max carried several kids on his massive shoulders. In fact Harry was almost leaning on the pram as support as he pushed it. He did notice people looking into the pram and cooing behind their hands at the four tiny girls sleeping inside, but he didn’t mind. It made his Dracken side puff up his chest in pride. No one stopped them however, though when they stopped outside the gorillas and the kids all pushed forward to the front, while he hung back, he did get those next to him who peered into the pram too, elbowing their neighbour and pointing into the pram while he pretended not to notice as his Dracken made him throw out his chest, all but preening under the praise of total strangers cooing over his children.

Nasta noticed and came to stand beside him, wrapping a strong, muscly arm around him and bending to kiss his heat flushed cheek. That sent a few of the people near them into louder coos and gasps of either delight, surprise or utter horror. Harry ignored them and turned to snuggle into Nasta.

 

“I can see you, you show-off.” Nasta teased him.

 

Harry chuckled. “I can’t help it. These four girls are gorgeous and it makes me happy to see others appreciating them.”

 

Nasta chuckled and kissed his head, but they were interrupted by a shy, barely teenaged girl nervously approaching them.

 

“I…uh…sorry, but we…we wanted to know if they were quadruplets or not, because the one is a little bigger than the other three and she looks a bit older.” She told her shoes, refusing to look at them and Harry smiled.

 

“The three smaller ones are our month old triplet daughters, the fourth bigger girl is their five month old cousin.”

 

The girl shot him a grateful smile for not shutting her down or telling her that it was none of her business and shooing her away. She peeked in the pram and her face all but melted.

 

“They’re all so adorable. All of these children are.” She said and she hurried back to her group of friends and they started whispering excitedly.

 

Harry chuckled and he breathed in deeply and threw his chest out. Nasta laughed at him again. “I love you.” He said.

 

Harry grinned wider. “Butterflies next?”

 

“Whatever you want.” Nasta told him.

 

“I think it’s whatever the kids want.” Harry laughed. “But the butterflies are right next door.”

 

“Butterflies it is then. Come on.”

 

Harry headed outside and left Nasta to wrangle up the kids. He checked on the four girls and he bent over the pram to kiss them all in turn. A hand touched his bum and properly groped him, fingers stroking over the bulge in the front of his trousers and he turned around like a flash, his hand up ready to break the nose of the person who had dared to touch him. He stopped himself short…just, when he saw Max’s sparkling sapphire blue eyes smiling back at him.

 

“You’re so horrible to me.” Harry frowned. “You knew I’d attack first! What if I’d hurt you?”

 

“I’d love you even more and I’d wear your marks proudly.” Max told him.

 

Harry went red and it had nothing to do with the scorching sun beating down on him.

 

“Mum! Dad! Come on!”

 

Harry looked behind him and he smiled as he saw that his three other lovers had gotten all the kids moving towards the butterfly free roaming exhibit. Harry pushed the pram towards it, but Max cradled his body and took the pram off of him, walking with Harry between himself and the pram, like they usually did with the shopping trolley when they went to the supermarket every four or five days.

Nasta was holding the flaps of the butterfly enclosure open for him and Max helped him get the pram through safely.

The first thing Harry saw were the amazed faces of his children as they were surrounded by flying butterflies. Harry grinned around himself, looking at the butterflies and he slipped out from under Max’s arm and he went to stroll around the butterflies, taking off his unneeded sunglasses and the hat too, it was too hot and too dark in here for either.

 

“Remember not to touch them.” Blaise was saying to the kids seriously. “They’re very fragile. I know they’re pretty, but you can’t touch them.”

 

“Okay, Daddy.” Several kids chorused.

 

Harry sat on a bench and it took just seconds for a butterfly to land on his head.

 

“Stay still! Stay still, Mummy!” The nine year old Jason coached him and he couldn’t stop the grin as he had a dozen cameras aimed at him, including Nasta’s and Blaise’s and he knew they were going to have a hundred photos of the same thing, but as a second butterfly, this one much bigger, joined the first, the kids got even more excited.

 

“I keep telling you it’s a nest!” Max chuckled. “They’re going to cocoon in your hair.”

 

“Shove off.” Harry said happily as he kept his head perfectly still.

 

“It’s because Mummy’s sweet and butterflies like sweet things.” Phoebe said innocently.

 

It was an innocent comment from a five year old girl, but it set all of his mates off laughing, Max even wiped away tears of mirth.

 

“What?! What’s so funny?” Neave demanded. “Mummy is sweet!”

 

“Oh he is, very sweet.” Max answered lecherously.

 

The two five year old girls shared a look and then another with their sister Luce and they tried to decide if they’d won or were being made fun of. They seemed to agree with the former and they nodded decisively.

Sully was exhausted by two in the afternoon as he’d missed his usual afternoon nap through excitement. Nasta had him up on his shoulder, cradling him as he threw a tantrum to end all tantrums because he was over tired. He was red faced, screaming, kicking and throwing himself backwards in Nasta’s arms as his mate tried to get him to calm down and go to sleep. Sully however, didn’t want to settle and he didn’t want to sleep because he didn’t want to miss anything.

 

“Let’s sit down for a bit.” Harry suggested, not waiting for an answer as he sat in a patch of shaded grass and opened the cool bag. He grabbed a bottle of water and handed a dozen notes to Braiden. “Ice creams and slushies, Braiden. We need a bit of a cool down.”

 

Braiden took a gaggle of excited kids with him to one of the small snack shops set up all over the zoo and Harry laid back and tried to ignore Sully screaming as Nasta tried to settle him down.

It took over fifteen minutes for Sully to slip into an exhausted sleep and the kids had started a game of tag on the lawn while they waited. They had to wipe up even more tears in this time when Xabiere fell and knocked his elbow and when Neave tried to join in the game and dropped her ice cream on the floor and had a complete meltdown.

 

“Right, we’ve got about three and a half hours left, where too next?” Harry said tiredly as finally, all the tears stopped.

 

“Bugs!” Calix cried out. “I’ve been waiting all day.”

 

“Come on then.” Harry said as he let Draco heft him to his feet. “To the creepy crawlies.”

 

He was getting tired himself and the heat didn’t help. He had no idea where his kids got their energy from as Taren took off like a jackrabbit and Eva and Ave hurried after him. Lai slipped back to walk with him.

 

“Are you okay, Mummy?”

 

Harry nodded. “Yes, love. It’s just a bit too hot today.”

 

His twelve year old sweetheart nodded, sending damp, blonde hair flying. “It is hot today.” Lai agreed.

 

“Keep to the shade as much as possible. I’ll put a cooling charm on the cars before we go and another on your sheets and bedroom.” Harry said as he pulled Lai into a kiss before readjusting the sun hat on all that beautiful blonde hair.

 

Lai smiled at him. “That will really help. Between the excitement of coming today and the heat last night, I could barely sleep at all.”

 

Harry smiled and he chuckled. “Not long now. You’ll get some decent sleep after today.”

 

They made it to the bugs’ enclosure. It was hard to miss a building that size with ‘BUGS’ written across the top of it in letters that were bigger than half of his own children.

Harry once again had the pram when Max was hounded to lift smaller children up so that they could see into various different tanks.

 

“Where is it in here, Daddy?” Phoebe asked, peering into a dark tank for the bug.

 

“Right here, sweetie. See?” Max pointed out the round fruit beetles and Phoebe squealed and watched it with her eyes, a headband holding her blonde hair out of the way.

 

Harry smiled as he watched the kids look at all of the beetles and crawlies in the tanks. There was no sun in the building, but neither was there any air and Harry quickly found himself sat on a bench just focusing on breathing. It took a mere moment before Draco sat next to him and pulled him in close.

 

“What is it, what’s wrong?” He asked.

 

“It’s just far too hot.” He complained. “There’s no breeze, no air.”

 

“Hold on.”

 

Harry felt Draco slide something out of his sleeve and as an icy blast of cold air sunk over his body, he could have danced for joy as he realised that Draco had cast a cooling charm on him, hiding his wand between their bodies so that no one else saw anything.

 

“Thank you.” He said gratefully, bending forward to kiss the blond. “I had no idea just how hot I was until you did that. I’m surprised that I didn’t melt before now.”

 

“Just because you eat your body weight in chocolate, doesn’t mean that you’re made of the stuff.” Draco teased.

 

Harry laughed happily and he had more energy now as he stood up with Draco and started pushing the pram towards the rest of his family several feet in front.

 

“Are you okay?” Nasta asked. “What was wrong?”

 

“He was too hot, Nas.” Draco told their top dominant. “I placed a cooling charm on him.”

 

“This place is like a furnace.” Harry agreed. “I really needed it, but I didn’t know that I needed it until Draco did it.”

 

Nasta sighed, but he smiled and bent to kiss him. “What am I going to do with you?”

 

“Oh, I can think of a few things off the top of my head.” Harry replied saucily, adding a wink for good measure.

 

Max, who had heard him, let out a loud belly laugh that made Harry grin. He left the pram to worm himself into Max’s arms for a kiss.

 

“This is a family attraction!” A furious man snapped. “No one wants to see that sort of behaviour here!”

 

Harry had the good grace to blush to the roots of his hair and he cringed away from Max. He should have remembered where he was, this was a family day out and the last thing anyone wanted to see was anyone snogging someone else in a bloody bug exhibit. There were kids everywhere, he should have had more thought for his surroundings and for other people.

 

“We’re sorry.” He said sincerely. “It won’t happen again.”

 

“It had better not or I’ll be reporting you!”

 

“He just said that it won’t happen again.” Blaise hissed furiously. Harry could sense that he was releasing his dominant pheromones. The man took a hasty step back from Blaise, who was reined in by Nasta.

 

Max took Harry away from the man and Nasta steered Blaise, leaving Draco to grab the pram with the four tiny girls and Harry knew that he would put that sharp, Malfoy tongue into action so that he had the last word. Draco absolutely loved getting in the last word.

 

“Are you okay?” Max asked him.

 

“Besides being utterly mortified to be told off like a lusty teenager for kissing at a zoo? I’m fine.” Harry said.

 

“I like it when you go all lusty teenager on me.” Max whispered to him. “It reminds me of when you _were_ a lusty teenager, all nimble and bendy and insatiable with your big innocent eyes and shy smiles as we slowly corrupted you bit by bit.”

 

That made Harry laugh hard and he truly felt much better for laughing, it perked his mood right back up.

 

“I’ll show you what I mean when we get home.” Max added and Harry grinned.

 

“I told you, after today you’re going to be far too tired to manage anything.”

 

“We’ll see, my love. Don’t underestimate my ability to shove off my exhaustion in favour of sex.”

 

Harry laughed again, but they were interrupted by a seven year old Serra charging up to them.

 

“Daddy, we can’t find the bug, come and help us!” Serra grabbed Max’s hand and tugged him over to where Senna, Oscar and Everett were looking into a tank, trying to find whatever was supposed to be inside it.

 

Harry walked down further, keeping an eye on the middle group of kids. The teenagers had wandered off up front and Harry knew that Braiden would prevent any younger kids from passing him and he was keeping an eye on a thirteen year old Taren, who was still bouncing around excitedly.

Imogen and Mollie were both walking together, arm in arm with one another and Mace and Evie were walking together too. Mace didn’t like bugs, Harry knew, so it came as no surprise that when he caught sight of something he would grimace in disgust. He wasn’t afraid of them, he would insist firmly, he just didn’t like them and he thought that they were completely gross.

Xabiere was walking on his own and Harry didn’t like that, so he hurried his steps to walk beside him.

 

“What’s wrong, Xabe?” He asked.

 

“I wanted to walk with Calix, but he won’t let me.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because I’m not old enough.”

 

“What?” Harry asked in confusion.

 

“He said only big kids can walk up front, he said that you said that.”

 

“No, I said that no one could walk past Braiden.” He said firmly. “Hold on a second.”

 

Harry hurried up to the lead group and he smiled as they excitedly showed him the things they’d found before he subtly pulled Calix out of the group and led him away.

 

“Why did you shoot down Xabiere, Calix? That’s not like you.”

 

“It’s just…he was just being too loud and it was annoying Leolin. So I was trying to control the situation. This is one of the only day trips that Leolin has been allowed to come on and we all want him to enjoy it.”

 

“If that was the case then you lead by example, Calix. You don’t send Xabiere away, you lower your own voice to speak to him so he has to quieten down to hear you. If he’s getting a bit boisterous, you calmly tell him to be still for a moment and to calm himself. You can’t tell me that he was being worse than Taren.”

 

Harry nodded to where Taren was bouncing on his toes, peering into a tank.

 

“Taren’s just bouncing around, Xabe was being loud too.”

 

“So if he stays quiet that’ll be fine? He really wants to walk with you. You know you’re his favourite big brother.”

 

Calix smiled at that before sighing and nodding. Harry turned and gestured for Xabiere to come over. He came running, but when he got there he ducked his head and wouldn’t look at Calix, instead he burrowed into Harry, hugging him.

 

“Come on, Xabe. The spiders are coming up soon.” Calix tried.

 

Xabiere just shuffled further into Harry. Harry combed his fingers through the jet black hair and he smiled.

 

“Xabie, Calix didn’t mean what he said, but you were being too loud for an indoor area and you know how those moody teenagers always get headaches. You can go with Calix now, but remember your indoor voice, okay? If Calix tells you to quieten down and use your indoor voice, you must listen to him.”

 

Xabiere nodded and Calix took his hand and pulled him away, back up to the group of older kids, who were all teenagers except for Xabiere.

 

“Everything okay?” Nasta asked him, wandering up with Sully still sleeping on his shoulder.

 

“Yeah. Leolin’s being grumpy and Xabiere was being too loud, so Calix sent him away before trying to calm Xabe down. So Xabiere was walking alone when all he really wanted to be doing was walking with Calix.”

 

“Is Leolin okay?”

 

“I’m sure he is. He doesn’t like too much going on at once and there is so much happening here that he’s likely having a bit of trouble keeping track of it all. The last thing he needs is an overexcited sibling in his ear, so he was getting a bit annoyed with it, so Calix thought that he was doing the right thing for Leolin, because they want him to enjoy himself today.”

 

Nasta sighed. “Then we went and had Faerie twins too.” He said with a headshake.

 

Harry chuckled. “I’m still blaming that one on you, but it’ll be easier for them, by the time they’re Leolin’s age, he’ll be a man and he’ll better understand them. He’ll be able to help them so much more.”

 

Nasta smiled at him. “I’d kiss you if I didn’t think it would get us arrested.” He said.

 

Harry laughed. “Later tonight. Max has promised me.”

 

“Oh, has he really? I might have to remind him exactly who the top dominant of our mateship is.”

 

Harry breathed out raggedly. “You know I love watching you two together. I love watching you dominate him.”

 

“After him, it’ll be your turn.” Nasta told him and Harry shivered, looking up at Nasta with eyes that had blown with lust. “I love that look on your face.”

 

Max clapped his hands right between them and Harry yelped and almost fell over himself.

 

“Remember where we are, lovers. Too many kiddies about.” Max grinned, even as he caught Harry and settled him on his feet.

 

“Do that again and you’ll be banished to the tree house.” Harry groaned as he rubbed his healing stomach.

 

“Are you okay?” Max asked seriously. “I never meant to hurt you.”

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a shock. No more of that, please.”

 

Max smiled sadly, and Harry could already see that he was feeling guilty.

 

“No more of that either.” Harry told him firmly. “We’re here for fun. I want to have fun, I just wish that those girls had been conceived a little sooner and had come out sooner without jeopardising their health.”

 

“I love you.” Max told him.

 

“I love you too, lummox. Now let’s get those spiders over and done with.”

 

“Not afraid of a little spider are you.” Max teased.

 

“No, but I’m not overly fond of the ones the size of elephants that wanted to eat me.”

 

“Mum! You can walk in with the spiders and they’re not in tanks!” Calix shouted at him excitedly.

 

“Oh dear god, no.” Harry moaned. “You make sure he doesn’t put one in his bloody pocket!” Harry told them. “And don’t take Sully in there either!”

 

Nasta laughed at him as Harry planted himself on a bench outside with the pram. His oldest mate carefully passed over Sully and Harry placed his baby boy on his own shoulder as Nasta went through the doors in with the free roaming spiders and Harry grimaced. He said nothing when Mace planted himself next to him. His son wasn’t afraid of spiders, no, he hated the way the spiders moved. Harry smiled and nodded, agreeing with Mace that the way spiders moved was unnatural and assuring him that he knew that Mace wasn’t afraid of them.

Harry, who had placed Sully down on the bench, took the time to sort out the triplets with fresh nappies and he changed Ivy too, using Mace to put the old nappies in the bin so that he had something to do and he could use the excuse of his sisters and his cousin if he needed to.

 

“It’s amazing, Mum!” Calix called out as he exited the spider exhibit. “Can I go in again?”

 

“If you’re quick.” Harry smiled.

 

Calix cheered and rushed around to the entrance again while Mace suppressed a shiver. Draco came out with the triplets and Lian and he herded them over to the pram while Blaise came out with the two sets of seven year old twins and the quadruplets.

It took a bit longer for Max to come out with a group of pale faced girls. They had not liked it as much as they’d thought they would have. Nasta herded out the older teenagers next, almost carrying a tearful Beatrice.

 

“What happened?” Harry asked.

 

“A spider dropped right down in front of her.” Nasta said with a small smile. “She was okay before that.”

 

Calix came hurrying out and he was red flushed and grinning widely. He looked so happy that Harry had to smile at him.  

 

“Are you happy now?” Harry asked him.

 

He nodded. “Very.” He answered.

 

Harry chuckled. “Okay, time to leave the bugs behind, let’s get to see those tropical birds.”

 

“I like birds.” Mollie said with a smile.

 

After the tropical birds and sloths, armadillos, aardvarks and bats, Harry was getting much more tired and the sun was completely relentless, even though it was so late in the day.

 

“What’s left, Farrah?” Loren asked, hurrying up to the knees of his big brother. 

 

“The only thing we haven’t seen yet, the giants and dragons.” Farren said with a secret chuckle as he checked his map.

 

“They have dragons like Mummy and our Daddies in cages?!” Loren exclaimed in shock, getting very upset.

 

“No, Lore.” Farren said. “Komodo dragons.” He explained.

 

Loren made an ‘O’ with his little mouth. “What’s a modo dragon?” He asked.

 

“Let’s go and see.” Farren said as he got down onto his knees and Loren gasped and then scrambled to crawl onto Farren’s back, wrapping skinny legs around Farren’s neck and lowering his hands into Farren’s hair to grip it tight.

 

Farren stood up and clamped his hands onto Loren’s skinny knees. It was half five when they entered the exhibit for the komodo dragons and the Galapagos tortoises. It was ten to six when they left and made their way to the gift shop.

Harry got his own bits and pieces and supervised his little babies as they got what they wanted and he grinned as Loren melted the shop workers as he put a collection of teddies on the counter that he could barely reach and followed it with a handful of notes.

 

“Do I have enough for these, please?” He asked sweetly.

 

“Let’s see, sweetheart.” The woman rung up his teddies and she grimaced. “Sorry, honey, you’re just a bit short.”

 

Harry, anticipating a tantrum, moved forward as quickly as he could to intervene.

 

Loren bit his lip and he looked down, before he looked up again and scrutinised the teddies. He took the monkey one away. “If this one goes back?” He asked softly.

 

“Put it down, Lore.” Harry said as he reached his son, putting a hand on his little head as he got out his own wallet. “That was a really mature thing you did, not having a tantrum and knowing to take away one teddy, you can have the monkey on me.”

 

“Mummy, really?” Loren asked.

 

“Yes, put it back up.” He said as he handed over his own notes to supplement Loren’s.

 

“Thank you. Thank you. I liked them all, but I couldn’t count all the way up for how much they’d cost.” Loren said.

 

“You can have them all.” Harry said as he handed the bag to Loren for him to carry. He had the biggest grin on his face and Harry smiled as his three year old walked off proudly with his bag that was almost too big and too tall for him to carry. He thanked the cashier and ducked back out of the line.

 

Harry checked on all of the others, buying fridge magnets, postcards, pyjamas, toys, mugs and all sorts.

 

“How are you feeling?” Nasta asked him.

 

“Tired now. I can’t wait to fall into bed.” He said honestly. “Cooling charms first though.”

 

“I can’t believe it’s still so hot.” Nasta nodded. “Cooling charms all around before bed. Though I’ll deal with that. You crawl right into bed.”

 

“I want tea first.” Harry insisted. “I might nap in the car, if these kids all stay asleep. You’d be okay with that and won’t think me a total bitch?”

 

Nasta laughed. “Of course not. You have just given me three new daughters only a month ago. I knew that today would take it out of you. You can sleep in the car if you need to.”

 

Harry smiled. “I knew that I loved you for a reason.”

 

Nasta laughed again and bent forward to peck his lips. “I can’t wait until we’re home and there are no more prying eyes so I can ravish this perfect mouth how it deserves.”

 

That made Harry laugh too. “Soon enough, I want tea when I get back, so you’ll all have time for at least a kiss before I fall asleep on you all.”

 

“Come on kids, wrap it up, this place wants to close and we need to get home.” Max called out.

 

It still look long minutes for everyone to get through the till with what they wanted and once they were outside Harry counted them all…several times. He did so again once they reached the cars and he checked each baby critically as he strapped them up in their car seats. He automatically made sure they were all wearing both shoes.

 

“I saw what you did with Loren.” Max told him as Harry checked in his car that everyone was alright. His biggest mate had already cast a cooling charm upon it. “I was just making my way over to do exactly the same thing.”

 

Harry chuckled. “I was expecting a tantrum at that moment, but he really surprised me, being so grown up about it. He deserved the little monkey teddy.”

 

“Yes he did, thank you for giving him to us.”

 

Harry laughed then in surprise. “I don’t think I had any sort of conscious choice, love.”

 

“Still. Thank you for all of them, even if a simple trip to the zoo is more like a military operation and takes months of preplanning and preparation.”

 

Harry laughed again, louder and slapped Max’s arm with no force or malice. “You’re terrible.”

 

“You knew that before you mated to me.” Max teased.

 

“And still I chose you.” Harry smiled happily.

 

“I’m thankful every day that you did.”

 

Harry grinned then, before he was pulled into a kiss by Blaise.

 

“I’m shooting off, these kids want to get home.” He said.

 

“We’ll see you soon.” Max said, pulling Blaise into a kiss. “If you’re home first, get the bloody kettle on!”

 

Harry watched Blaise wave to show that he understood as he jogged back to the black car. He slipped inside, started the engine before pulling away. Blaise should be the first one home now.

 

“Right, that’s the cue to leave, be safe.” Max told Harry as he kissed him one last time and then went to his big blue car.

 

“Draco, are you sorted?” Nasta asked the blond.

 

“Yeah, just checking everyone is present and accounted for.” Draco insisted as he came to kiss them. “I’ll see you both at home.”

 

Harry stood and he watched Draco pull off and he groaned. “We’re going to be the last home.” He whined.

 

“The kids will be winding down and going to their rooms and your tea will already be made, ready and waiting for you as you walk through the door. What’s wrong with that?” Nasta told him with a grin.

 

Harry laughed and shook his head. “There is that. Do you need anything to eat or drink before we leave now?”

 

“No, I’m alright. Let’s just get home. I can last out two hours, taking a drink when we inevitably stop for bottles and nappy changes.”

 

Harry nodded. He slipped himself into the passenger side of the car and he automatically counted the babies in the back yet again, visually checking them over as Nasta joined him up front. The babies were all sleeping and those who were just clinging on to wakefulness would soon be lulled to sleep by the car. That was the best thing about long car journeys after a long, tiring day. It put all the babies to sleep so all they had to do was pop them into their cots when they got home and they’d be down for the night, waking only for their night feeds in the case of the month old triplets.

He did in fact doze off a few times on the way back and he was either woken back up by the car, by the uncomfortable position that he found himself in, or by the babies in the back. They _were_ the last ones home, the three other cars were waiting on the driveway when they got back. Draco and Blaise, who had been looking out for them, immediately came out to help them with the babies, Draco taking all three month old triplets, Blaise picking up Loren and Lian, leaving Harry to get Sully and Ivy while Nasta juggled their older triplet girls.

Harry got them into the house and Braiden met him at the stairs and he took Sully straight from him and went to put him into his cot, leaving Harry with just Ivy. Harry shook his head.

 

“That boy will be a brilliant parent one day.” He sighed. He was just sad that that day could be very soon, as Braiden’s sixteenth birthday was coming up in just a month’s time.

 

He took Ivy into the living room and Amelle was there, hovering over her excited, sleepy children. Harry handed Ivy straight over, aware that Amelle would be feeling all sorts at the moment because she hadn’t seen them since the afternoon of the day before, particularly a five month old Ivy.

Harry instead accepted a cup of tea from Max and he sat himself down. Only his older kids were up, the younger ones, the under eights, were all tucked up in bed already. Even his preteens were sluggish and sleepy as they drank down their cold drinks and yawned every other minute. They’d be up in bed soon, despite it being only half eight in the night.

As he yawned with them, he didn’t think it would be long before he was down for the count too.

 

“How were they?” Caesar asked.

 

“As good as gold, as you well know.” Harry smiled. “Oscar got a scraped knee, but nothing more serious than that. It was a good day.”

 

“We had so much fun, Daddy.” Everett insisted and Caesar picked up his youngest son. One of only two boys he had out of four girls.

 

“We did, Daddy, but I’m tired now.” Imogen said, holding her hands up to her Father. Caesar all but melted as he scooped up his daughter and held her too.

 

“We’d best get them home, Amelle.” He said. “Thanks again for taking them out.”

 

“It was no trouble, we loved having them along.” Harry insisted.

 

“Thank you.” Amelle said with a smile and she and Harry embraced.

 

Max tugged her into a hug too and he kissed her forehead before bending further to kiss Ivy and he caught all of his nieces, and his two nephews, into a hug and a kiss and then he got Caesar, who aimed a kick at his older brother’s shin, before he went through the floo, then Eleonora followed him through, then Beatrice, and then Amelle went through with Ivy and Everett.

Harry sat back down with a groan.

 

“More tea, my love?” Max asked him.

 

“That would be wonderful. Thanks for the cooling charms too, this house feels blissful.”

 

“All the bedrooms and beds have been done, the more powerful spell too, so it should last for at least eight hours. Those kids should be nice and cool all night. It’s going to be a hot summer though.”

 

“Thank Merlin I already gave birth.” Harry grinned. “I would have glowed like a homing beacon if I had my wings and scales out in this weather. Particularly those gold scales that you gave to me, mister Delericey.”

 

Nasta laughed happily and made good on his promise to kiss him properly and thoroughly when they were in their own home and their own privacy.

 

“Wow. Do that again.” Harry said dopily.

 

Nasta smiled at him so lovingly, but he did as asked and he pulled Harry up into a toe-curling kiss.

 

“Oi, where’s mine?” Max demanded.

 

Nasta settled Harry back on the settee. “Oh, you want some too?”

 

Nasta pulled Max’s taller frame down into another toe-curling kiss…Harry could see the white knuckled effort it took Max not to let go of the tea tray in his hands and send the cups smashing to the floor.

 

“That…now that was a fucking kiss!” Max declared happily as he set the tray down on the coffee table before launching at Nasta and kissing him again, happily allowing Nasta to take back over and give another of those spine tingling kisses.

 

Harry snatched his tea and sipped at it happily. Today had been a great day. They’d had nothing more serious than a few scraped knees or elbows, one banged head and one dropped ice cream. The kids were all happy and they had a million photos to go sorting through now, but he was happy and he’d enjoyed himself, a month post birth or not.

As his mates snuggled up on either side of him, Draco wrapping an arm around his chest, as his belly and hips were off limits, he smiled to himself and sipped some more tea. Blaise had drunk his coffee and he was dozing, his head on Max’s shoulder and Harry didn’t blame him. It had been a hot, humid, muggy and long day today and carting around thirty-five kids was exhausting. At least they’d dropped back down to their original twenty-nine, though that would go up to thirty-one tomorrow, when their Faerie twins Cyneric and Kallan came back from visiting their Uncle Dain and Uncle Kailen. He hoped that they were alright, but he also knew that if anything, anything at all had happened, from a slight cough to a sneeze, then Dain and Kailen would have contacted him immediately. None of them took any chances with their little Faerie babies, and until he was in his twenties, that would include Leolin too.

Harry drained his tea and placed the cup back on the table and he turned more fully into Draco’s arms, resting his body back against his mate. He smiled to himself, even as the quiet and calm of an exhausted house lulled him quickly into drowsiness. Today had been perfect and he hoped to have many more days out and about with his family like this in the future, as they’d always done.

He felt Nasta shifting closer and he smiled, reaching out blindly to pull his top dominant into his body, letting Nasta rest on him as he was resting on Draco. He really needed his bed now, he needed some decent sleep before his beautiful triplet girls woke him up at ten, midnight, three and six for bottles and nappy changes.

 

“I think we should get them to bed.” Nasta said softly over his head. “Max, have you got Blaise?”

 

“Yeah, I got him. He’s out like a light.”

 

“Harry is too.” Nasta smiled and Harry felt a tuft of his hair being brushed out of the way before Nasta kissed his lips.

 

Harry was picked up and he heard Draco stand and stretch.

 

“I’ll go and get rid of these mugs and make sure everything’s locked down.” Draco said as the clinking of mugs was heard.

 

“Thank you. Don’t be too long.”

 

“I won’t.”

 

Harry was carried up the stairs and he heard Blaise whine and murmur sleepily in French as he was lain on the bed. Nasta murmured softly back, also in French, before Harry was placed down and immediately the cooling charm made itself known as he wriggled and tried to get used to the coolness after the heat.

 

“Shh, Harry. It’s okay.” Max murmured to him, undressing him and Harry slitted open his eyes to peer up at Max. “Go back to sleep.” Max whispered. “Everything’s fine and well in hand.”

 

Harry hummed and he closed his eyes again. He woke up again, momentarily, when someone bumped his body when they climbed into the bed with him, wrapping around him securely, before he drifted back off. Today had been a small slice of bliss and he smiled to himself. He adored his family and there needed to be more days out like this one, where they could just enjoy themselves and spend time together as a family, very soon his children would literally be flying from his nest, which could start as early as next month. He needed to enjoy days like this while he could…while he still had all of his children in his nest with him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is part one of about six, all centred on day trips and holidays and such and they’re all under the umbrella title of Days Out and About. They won’t all be subsequent, as they’ll be broken up by other Scaled Bits chapters, but they are sort of linked together as they’re all about the same sort of thing. I decided to do it this way as I thought if I posted them all one after another then they might get a bit repetitive. Too much sugar and not enough strife and all that, we need some spice thrown into the Scaled Bits mixture too, though the main fic is adding enough spice at the moment, though that won’t last.
> 
> Anyway, until the next update lovelies,
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Mass. X


	52. Tease

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Luckywolf Gillum, who wanted to see this small scene written out. There are themes of a sexual nature here, lovelies, but nothing explicit, but if you want to skip it, there’s nothing important that you’ll miss.

 

 Tease

 

It was quiet in the bedroom, the sounds of breathing could be heard over the barely discernible background music that was playing from the small wireless radio on the bedside table. Harry had put on soft, relaxing music with no singing, so that it didn’t interrupt the mind.

It was overly warm in the room, to compensate for Max’s lack of clothes. He was only wearing boxer shorts as he lay, spread out on their huge bed that comfortably fit five grown men, even if Harry was a rather small, slim man.

Harry smiled as he spread his knees over Max’s hips and stroked the huge expanse of back muscles laid out before him with hands covered in warm oil, going slowly and making sure to get into every dip and curve of Max’s body, paying attention to his shoulders and neck, sliding his hands over Max’s large, bulging arms, leaving no patch of skin untouched as he even took the time to massage Max’s fingers, stroking and lightly pulling on each one individually.

He would never get enough of touching his mates or just generally rubbing against them. In fact he enjoyed it immensely.

He dipped his fingers back into the bowl of warm baby oil that he had by his knee and he hovered them over Max’s back, dripping the oil over those muscles before rubbing it in slowly, lingeringly, listening to Max groan under him over the music from the radio.

He was pitched forward suddenly when Max carefully went onto his knees and Harry was about to ask what the matter was when Max fiddled with his boxer shorts and then laid back down. Harry giggled then, as he realised that Max had just adjusted himself, likely because he’d been crushing himself in an awkward position.

 

“It’s not funny.” Max grunted gruffly. “I enjoy having your tiny hands on me very much.”

 

“So I noticed.” Harry grinned, feeling a little frisky himself.

 

He carried on with his massage, just caressing glorious muscles and listening to Max grunt and groan happily underneath him.

He moved himself down lower, sitting on his knees between Max’s spread legs, dipping his hands back into the oil so that he could massage Max’s legs, taking particular care and love with them as Harry truly loved Max’s long, large, powerful legs. He paid them extra attention and okay, if he played up near his thighs a little more and ‘accidentally’ brushed against his balls now and then, well…Max wasn’t exactly complaining about it at any rate.

 

“Turn over for me, lover.” Harry purred, giving Max a gentle tap to get him moving once he’d finished massaging Max’s feet, stroking and pulling gently on each of Max’s toes.

 

Max did as he was told, turning over slowly for him, settling himself back down on his back and Harry grinned happily at the bulge in his boxers.

 

“Well, hello. Is this for me?” He asked with a naughty grin.

 

Max snorted. “I don’t see anyone else around here with their teasing little fingers digging in everywhere.”

 

“Ah, but they might be up here.” Harry said as he tapped Max’s forehead. Sapphire blue eyes opened to look up at him.

 

“I’m not thinking of anything.” Max told him. “All my attention is on your glorious little hands doing wonderful things to my body. Your tiny, magical fingers are finding places that I’d forgotten about.”

 

Harry chuckled and once again sat astride Max’s hips…which got him more than a grunt this time as Max cursed. Harry just wiggled to get himself comfortable before starting the massage on Max’s chest by dribbling warm oil over his nipples before setting his hands to task, stroking and pressing into muscle.

 

“You little fucking tease!” Max cursed, gritting his teeth.

 

“Oh, love. We go through this every time that we have this lovely massage routine together. You knew exactly what you were letting yourself in for.” Harry told him as he gently circled Max’s nipples with his oily fingers.

 

“Oh, but it feels so good.” Max said. “I never quite remember how sexually deviant you are and always remember how wonderful I feel afterwards.”

 

“Sexually deviant?” Harry laughed. “How dare you. You’re the worst one in this mateship, my love, I assure you!”

 

Max just hummed, putting his hands behind his head and just enjoying himself as Harry repeated his massage process and slipped down his body to do the front of his legs. He really, really loved Max’s legs.

 

“Pull your wings out, I like looking at them.” Harry said as he was doing Max’s feet.

 

Confused at the command, but also very happy and not seeing the danger that he was walking into in the slightest, likely because most of his body’s blood was currently supplying a different head, Max just sat forward for a moment and did as asked, bringing out his humongous blue wings with his jewel like blue and black scales before settling down on them like a luxurious cushion.

Harry finished off Max’s feet and toes before he moved back up his body and then he went up by his head. He touched the inside scales of those beautiful wings and Max cursed like a sailor at the first touch.

 

“Don’t do that!” He complained. “You know how sensitive the inside scales are, Harry.”

 

Harry just hummed and continued, listening to Max curse and seeing his bulge grow even bigger, stretching his boxers further as Harry teased the very sensitive scales and wing ridges that were created by the thin, flexible bones underneath.

 

“Harry.” Max whined.

 

Harry ignored him and carried on, one hand doing a wing each, matching one hand to the other as he kept to a symmetrical pattern.

 

“Harry!” Max growled this time and he moved.

 

Harry was faster, as he’d been waiting for the slight movement, and he leapt up and ran through the house, laughing. Of course he was no match for Max’s long legs and before he could find sanctuary with one of his other mates, Max had grabbed him around the waist and had hefted him up into those strong arms.

 

“Payback’s a bitch.” Max told him as he carried Harry back to their bedroom and kicked the door closed.

 

“What are you going to do?” Harry asked with a grin.

 

“Pull your wings out.” Max told him as he sat Harry on the bed and held him there with his hands on his shoulders.

 

“You know I can’t last if my wings are teased.” Harry complained.

 

“You’ll last as long as I tell you to. Now pull them out.”

 

Harry unfurled his white wings slowly, teasingly keeping them tucked up.

 

“Harry.” Max said in a deep tone, warningly.

 

Harry chuckled and stretched them out fully displaying his multi-coloured scales of blue, black, purple, gold and silver.

Max pushed Harry to lie on his back and then he did to Harry what Harry had done to him as he slotted his much larger legs over Harry’s tiny waist and pinned him to the bed with his bulk. He took a moment to study his submissive mate, whose large, gorgeous green eyes were looking up at him expectantly, waiting for him to make his move. He bent over Harry and he kissed him instead, loving the little groan into the kiss that he got from Harry. He loved it when Harry started moaning into their kisses because he was so jacked up that he couldn’t control the sounds he made, not even to kiss him back.

Max pulled out of the kiss, smiling at Harry’s swollen lips and his glazed eyes. How he loved this man underneath him to the very core of his person. He would willingly, gladly, give up his life for Harry if needed, that was how much he loved him.

Max found Harry’s bowl of warmed baby oil and he covered his hands in the stuff, before he started stroking and touching Harry’s sensitive inside scales.

Harry cursed like a sailor himself and bucked up from the bed, trying to dislodge Max or wriggle his way free. Max dropped a little more weight onto him and kept him still as he splayed his hands out and stroked them teasingly over as much of the wings and scales as he could, sometimes it was great having such large hands as he got to touch a much larger surface area.

Harry moaned, his eyes going up into his head and Max just grinned happily at being the cause of that reaction. He loved playing with Harry’s wings…or just playing with Harry in general, he wasn’t truly that fussy, but the reactions he got when he played with Harry’s wings were on a level all of their own as he ran his fingers teasingly along the top bone and watched as Harry screeched and writhed under him, his hands reaching up to clutch at the headboard, even as he pressed his hips up into Max and tried to get some friction. Max was not cruel enough to deny him that, even as he continued rubbing and stroking those beautiful wings that were a representation of their combined love and bond to one another.

Harry let go with a loud screech that Max knew would have Nasta up here within seconds, even as he held Harry and let him come down from his high.

Sure enough Nasta came barrelling through the door, took one look at them together on the bed and he slumped with a sigh.

 

“I should have known.” He chuckled.

 

“Harry really likes having his wings played with.” Max grinned, completely unapologetic.

 

Nasta hummed and gave him a smirk. “Just make sure that you clean him off and strip the bed. You’ve spilt the oil over the sheets…or I should say that Harry has.”

 

Max looked and sure enough Harry had kicked the bowl of oil over during his orgasm and Max groaned.

 

“Here, take this boneless pile of happy while I sort out the bed.” He chuckled.

 

Nasta was all too happy to take Harry and Max watched with a lusty grin as Nasta cuddled the sleepy, contentedly purring Harry, taking him into their en suite to clean him off a bit before Max got to stripping the bed of its oily, messy sheets. Despite having to do this, stripping the huge monstrous bed and pulling on the clean sheets, it had all been worth it just to get a massage from Harry and to tease those beautiful wings for a little while.

He would have to ask for another massage soon, just so that they could do this again. Perhaps an injury or some severe stress at work would convince Harry that his mate needed the attentions of his tiny hands. He would just have to force out Harry’s wings again and have his way with them. It wasn’t like Harry would ever complain either, because despite wriggling all over the place when they were touched, Harry truly loved having his wings played with, because at the end of the day Harry was just a massive fucking tease and sometimes, he needed to be given a dose of his own medicine.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> A/N: A small scene here just to fulfil a prompt. I hope you all enjoyed it. We have now moved into my birthday week and as such, I’m updating en mass. This is the first of two Scaled Bits chapters, I have another one that is rather sad and will touch upon some difficult material, but that one will be next week now. I also have a Black Heir chapter to update and chapter 108 of The Rise of the Drackens is finally finished, so I’ll be updating both of those too. So I’m going to be very busy now editing and reading through all the chapters ready for the updates. But this is a nice, easy scene to ease you all back into the Dracken world, ready for the monstrosity of chapter 108 that will be updated in a few days, so until then lovelies,
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	53. A Day of Devastation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter might cause some distress to certain readers and it contains some trigger warnings. Please read with caution.
> 
>  
> 
> Braiden – 30
> 
> Rowan – 31
> 
> Boden – 29
> 
> -
> 
> Briallen – 12
> 
> Byron – 9
> 
> Isaac – 6
> 
> Declan – 5
> 
> Tate – 16 months
> 
>  
> 
> \------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

A Day of Devastation

 

15th March 2028

 

Braiden Blaise Enzo Zabini sat at his kitchen table and he eagerly drank down a cup of coffee. His Dad Nasta would kill him if he found out, but Braiden was not planning on letting his Dad find out that he was now basically surviving on a dozen coffees a day. He blamed his mate Rowan, for introducing him to a Tassimo coffee machine several years before, and his Dad Blaise too, for being such an avid coffee drinker throughout his whole life, because that was bound to have made an impression upon him.

Rowan was older than he was, as Braiden was the middle of both of his mates, and Rowan had been eighteen when they had mated while he himself had been sixteen when he’d mated to Rowan in the middle of July, on the sixteenth. He’d been just turned seventeen when he’d mated to Boden, five weeks later on the twentieth, six days after his birthday. Their top dominant Boden, despite being the biggest, and all huge and muscly, was actually the youngest of them. He had still been sixteen when they had mated, but he had certainly not looked like it.

They were all older now, Rowan had just celebrated a birthday nine days before and had turned thirty-one, he himself was still thirty, at least for a few months more, as he turned thirty-one in August. Boden was still twenty-nine and he was going to be twenty-nine until the end of November. Both he and Rowan would be thirty-one before Boden turned thirty. He was their toy-boy, as they liked to joke at his expense.

Braiden chuckled into his coffee and he looked proudly over at his four children playing, or at least the four children that he had home with him. His oldest, and only daughter, Briallen had just turned twelve a few weeks before, just days before Rowan had turned thirty-one, and they had sent her, her cards and presents via owl as she was away at Hogwarts. She was a very proud Gryffindor and though Braiden would have liked for her to be a Hufflepuff like himself, he could not say that he was at all disappointed or all that surprised really, she definitely took after her Nana Harry and that was one of the highest compliments that Braiden could give to anyone.

Their second baby was Boden’s son, Byron, who was nine and would be ten in September. Their third child, Isaac, was also Boden’s and he was six, a few months from turning seven. Declan was five and their baby, Tate, was sixteen months old. They had no more babies on the way and no heat periods either, but that was usual for their mateship as they kept to a sporadic, rather random pattern. Truly Isaac and Declan being a year apart from one another was very unusual for their mateship, which preferred several years between clutches, not that any of them were disappointed of course, they loved their five babies and they still had a hundred odd years to go before they would be naturally infertile, they’d just gotten off to a rather slow start.

His Mum however, was pregnant and nesting. He was having just the one child this time, so none of them were particularly worried. This would be his Mum’s twenty-first pregnancy and after the sextuplets almost fourteen years ago now, he was pretty sure that his Mum could do anything. Out of twenty-one pregnancies, with forty-two babies, his Mum had only ever lost two of them. His brother and sister Jaime and Cassie, who had been born far too early, with his baby sister Mollie. They had been triplets, but only Mollie, the youngest of them, had survived. Jaime had been a stillborn and Cassie had died in their Mother’s arms a few hours after being born. He shivered and laid a hand over his own belly, feeling a phantom wash of empathy for his parents. He couldn’t ever imagine losing a child, it was too devastating to think about, but he’d been much too young to remember the deaths of Jaime and Cassie. He’d never even seen them outside of the scant photos his parents had. He knew them as a concept only, not as real people. He knew that they were his brother and sister, but he’d only been five at the time of their loss, he had been more concerned with playing, sneaking cookies and crying for his parents to come back once the excitement of being at Grandma Kimberly and Granddad Alexander’s house had worn off.

He sighed and looked at the four playing children. He hoped that he and his mates never suffered such a devastating loss, nor that anyone in his family would suffer in such a way, not again, though the chances of that were rather slim. Dracken pregnancies were notoriously delicate and there were a lot of them who were actually Drackens in his family. It was a miracle that his Mum hadn’t had more deaths or miscarriages over twenty-one pregnancies. Braiden hoped that he and his mates were as lucky, but so far they had been fine with all five of their children, but as Boden had pointed out, ever the worrier, they had only had singletons thus far. Their luck might change if… _when_ they started having multiples. It was only inevitable with Drackens. No Dracken in history, ever (that anyone knew of) had ever had all singletons over their lifetimes, there was always some multiples slotted in, even if it was just a few sets of twins or triplets. Not without some mark of traumatic devastation that usually capped their number of children at just a handful anyway, like his grandparents, Myron, Richard and Ashleigh.

 

“Dada.”

 

“No, Tate! I’m Isaac!” Their six year old told their sixteen month old, who called everyone and everything ‘Dada’ without discrimination. It was Tate’s only word.

 

“Dada!” Tate replied happily, grasping for his big brother.

 

“No, Tate!” Isaac complained. “I’m your brother! Not Daddy!”

 

Tate giggled again happily and rocked on his nappy clad bottom, his chin wet with dribble. Braiden smiled at them lovingly.

 

“He doesn’t understand, Izzy.” Braiden said patiently. “He’s just a baby. He’ll learn in time.”

 

“But he’s calling me Daddy!” Isaac said incredulously. “Me! I’m not his Daddy, I’m six!”

 

Braiden had to laugh and he got up and went to sit on the floor with his babies. Tate immediately moved to plop himself onto his lap and declared him ‘Dada’ and Braiden just smiled and kissed him.

 

“Can you say mama, Tate?” He encouraged softly.

 

“Dada!” Tate declared and Braiden smiled, their little boy wasn’t ready to say anything else yet. Braiden blamed Boden for Tate’s single word vocabulary, as he’d been so insistent on one of their children saying Dada as a first word that he’d pressed Tate for it and now it was all his baby would say.

 

“Are we going to go see Nana?” Byron asked. “He’s having a baby in the garden.”

 

Braiden chuckled. “He is, we can go and see your Granddads’ if you want to, but I’m not sure if Nana will be there. He’s nesting.”

 

“But Granddad Max will be there?” Byron asked.

 

Braiden smiled. Byron, who took after Boden and reminded Braiden of his brothers’ Farren and Mace, idolised his Grandfather Max.

 

“He will, yes.” Braiden said with a smile.

 

“Can we go now?!” Byron asked excitedly.

 

Braiden nodded. “Okay, let me pack a bag for Tate and we’ll go.”

 

“Yes!” Byron cheered.

 

“Will Lala want to play?” Declan asked.

 

“I’m sure Larsen will want to play with you.” Braiden said distractedly as he packed several nappies, a pack of wipes, three dummies, a change of clothes and a jar of food, just in case.

 

Braiden’s baby brother, Larsen, was actually the same age as his fourth child, Declan, but that happened within Dracken families. He was his parents’ oldest child after all and his Mum had been sixteen when he’d conceived him and only two weeks over his seventeenth birthday when he had been born. Braiden smiled as he remembered the familiar tale of how his Mum had started nesting with him, on the roof, on the same day as his birthday, just a little while after he’d cut his own birthday cake.

 

“Come on.” Braiden chided as he held out his hand, his fingers splayed out, for his three older children to each grab a finger. He was carrying Tate, just in case. He was now an expert at Apparating with all his children at once. It was a very difficult skill to learn, but he’d been determined and with both Boden and Rowan working, it had been a necessary thing for him to learn too, especially as he was the primary carer for the children, as he was able to take the option of working from home where his mates couldn’t, so he had taken up working from home in a heartbeat in order to support his family and his mates. He much preferred it too. He loved picking and choosing when he could work and he loved spending all day with the kids, always being on hand if they needed him.

He landed, in one piece, with four children, on the very familiar front steps of his massive childhood home. As always a pang of familiar nostalgia resounded within his chest. He didn’t remember his Dad Max’s house, the one that he’d been born in and where he had spent the first year or so of his life, but this was the only house that he’d ever known, the only one that he remembered and every room was filled with memories of mischief and joy.

He knocked on the front door, trying to make a play of being polite and stopping Byron from just walking in to teach his oldest son some manners.

His biological Dad, Blaise, opened the door and then rolled his eyes as soon as he saw him.

 

“How many times, Braiden, stop knocking like you’re a stranger or unwelcome. Get in this house.”

 

Braiden grinned and he accepted the tight hug he got from his Dad, not minding that Tate was immediately taken from him and greeted his Grandfather with a loud ‘Dada!’

 

Blaise chuckled. “He’s still saying nothing else I see, he takes after your Mother, he was a stubborn bas…basketball too.”

 

“Basketball?” Braiden couldn’t help but snicker.

 

“Shut it, you. Your Mother has been complaining about our language again lately, as if he’s not the worst of us! So we’ve been getting a little… _creative_ with the substitutes. Go in the living room, I’ll get you coffee.”

 

“Is Dad Nasta not home then?”

 

“He’s on nest watch.” Blaise grinned. “I’m making the most of it while I can. Max relieves him of duty in twenty minutes and I want another three cups between then and now.”

 

Braiden chuckled and he heard a massive roar and he rolled his eyes as he heard his sons screeching in joy. They’d found their Granddad Max.

 

“Braiden! My son, my oldest child, come! Let me look upon you!” Max called from the depths of the house and Braiden shared a look with his Dad and he chuckled happily.

 

“How have you put up with him for all this time?”

 

“Coffee. Lots of it.” Blaise insisted seriously. “It’s a life saver sometimes.”

 

“Braiden! My boy, where is my boy?!” Max called out again and Braiden had to laugh.

 

“You better go before he carries on. I will kill him if he gets any more excited.”

 

“This is your first baby for five years, especially as you all thought that Mum wouldn’t fall pregnant again after Larsen was born. I think you’re all entitled to be a little excited over it.”

 

Braiden went to the living room before his Dad could call again and as soon as he cleared the door he was wrestled to the floor when someone grabbed his knees and pulled. He landed in his Dad’s lap and he had the life squeezed out of him.

 

He laughed. “Dad! Let go.”

 

“But I love you and I’ve missed my baby.”

 

“I’m thirty years old!”

 

“You’ll always be my tiny baby!”

 

“Not worried about breaking a hip already, are you?” His snotty brother, Xabiere, teased.

 

“No, but I’ll break your jaw if you’re not careful.” Braiden teased right back.

 

“Enough of that!” Their Dad said. “Or I’ll bash in both of your skulls.” He laughed.

 

Xabiere was mated too and he’d brought along his two children, Oliver and Ffion. Oliver was two years old, just eight months older than his Tate, and both he and his Father, Xabie, were born in February and had celebrated a birthday last month, Xabie at the end on the twenty-third, Oliver at the beginning on the seventh. Taren and their Dad Nasta had a birthday on the same day, also at the beginning of February, on the third.

Ffion was Xabiere’s youngest child and she was now six months old. She was younger than his Tate by ten months and she was currently on her Father’s lap as Xabiere kept her entranced by jingling his car keys at her.

 

“Where are our adorable twin Faeries?” Braiden asked, referring to his seventeen year old identical twin Faerie brothers, Cyneric and Kallan, who both still lived at home while they were both so young still.

 

“Napping.” Max said. “They’re in the middle of a major growth spurt, Ric has shot up four inches and Kallie has shot up by five. Now that they’re closing in on their eighteenth they’re doing some major growing and developing, so they’re eating a lot and sleeping a lot. Do you remember when Leolin went through it?”

 

Braiden nodded. “It must be such a relief though to have them coming up to eighteen.”

 

“You have no idea.” Blaise sighed, putting Tate down on the floor and then placing a tray down on the coffee table and picking up his own coffee. “Having three Faeries under the age of eighteen to constantly watch over is…it’s…”

 

“Terrifying.” Max finished with a nod. “It’s terrifying because we had these three tiny, vulnerable little babies who could get sick so easily and had no defence against those illnesses. If they got sick we literally had to just watch them suffer and hope for the best. It was awful. Now that Leolin is an adult and off doing his own thing, living his own life, and the twins are almost adults too. It’s such a relief! Just six more months and they’ll be safe and strong too.”

 

“Just don’t lax your watch on them. Knowing them you’d look away and they’d both get colds.” Xabie said.

 

“We won’t.” Blaise said seriously. “We absolutely won’t. Not until they turn eighteen and even then, probably not until they’re assuredly safe. It would be devastating now to lose one or both of them so close to the finish line, so to speak.”

 

Braiden removed himself from his Dad’s lap and snatched his coffee, then watched as his Dad crawled over to the kids and roared at them, making them shriek and giggle, they all started attacking him and Braiden was free to just sit and rest a little.

 

“Any sign of a heat period?” Xabiere asked him.

 

“None at all.” He said. “We’ll have to keep Tate as our baby for a little longer. How about you?”

 

“Nope.” Xabie grinned. “We’re alright with just Ollie and Fee for a while longer. This princess is only six months old after all.” He added as he rubbed a hand over his daughter’s hair.

 

Braiden had just finished his coffee when his Dad Nasta came in through the larger family room.

 

“Is Harry alright?” Was the first thing asked, by a very worried Max. That put Braiden on edge, that it was the first thing mentioned meant that they’d had trouble already and that his Dad was worried made Braiden worried too.

 

Nasta shook his head. “He’s still unsettled. I think something’s wrong.”

 

“I’ll call Draco back.” Blaise said immediately.

 

“Call a Healer too, from the way he’s acting he’ll be having this baby today.”

 

“I’ll go out with him.” Max said, but Nasta shook his head.

 

“You’re more use here, Max. I’d be useless keeping these kids entertained.”

 

“We can leave.” Xabie said immediately and Braiden nodded.

 

“You shouldn’t have to. This will always be your home.” Nasta said, scrubbing a hand through his greying hair before scratching at the scruff on his chin. “We’re likely worried for nothing it’s just…”

 

“The last time Harry didn’t settle in his nest was when he gave birth to our first triplets. That he won’t settle is an indicator that the baby is distressed for whatever reason.” Max finished sadly.

 

Braiden swallowed. He’d only been thinking of Jaime, Cassie and Mollie earlier that day. He bit on his lip and chewed on it.

 

“Draco’s on his way back and Healer Almus is coming over to sit with us, he’s bringing Healer Cole just in case. I’ve called Georgio in too.” Blaise said worriedly. “It might be a bit much, but I’d rather have them here and not needed than to need them and be scrambling about when time could be crucial.”

 

“Do you want me to call anyone?” Braiden asked. “Granddad Aneirin? Granddad Lucius?”

 

Nasta and Max shared a look, then Nasta nodded.

 

“Call them all, love. I’m going to go back outside. I don’t want your Mum to be on his own.”

 

Braiden nodded and he set himself to calling in the family. The house was going to be full to bursting, though it would be better to remove all of the children. He’d take them to Granddad Alexander.

Xabiere had the same thought as he was packing up Oliver and Ffion.

 

“I got them, Bray.” Xabiere said. “Come on, Byron. Izzy.”

 

“But we’re visiting Granddad Max, Uncle Xabe!” Byron complained.

 

“We’re going to go and see Granddad Alexander now.” Xabiere told him.

 

“Go with your Uncle, Byron. Be good.” Braiden said, even as he shot off a quick text to Rowan and Boden, letting them know what was going down and where their babies were.

 

Boden immediately replied asking if he needed him as support. Merlin Braiden loved that man so much. He replied that he didn’t need anyone just yet, that nothing was certain, but something was definitely happening. That he’d text later if anything changed. Rowan answered not three minutes later asking exactly the same thing. He had the greatest mates in the world, even as he shot off the same reply as he had to Boden, that he’d text later if he needed them.

The house became a hive of activity as family started arriving quickly and everyone was asking what was wrong, especially as there were three Healers among them. Healer Almus, Healer Cole and Healer Alessandri. It was all really worrying.

 

“Braiden, what’s going on?” Leolin came over to ask him.

 

Braiden shook his head. “It’s Mum. Something’s wrong and he’s not settling in his nest. It’s only happened once before, when he gave birth to Jaime, Cassie and Mollie.”

 

“You don’t think…” Tegan trailed off looking worried and upset.

 

“One good thing counts in Mum’s favour, Tee.” Regan said gently. “This baby is a singleton, not triplets. This has happened before and our Mollie survived. This baby can too, especially as Mum’s further along with this baby than he was with the triplets. If that is what’s wrong in the first place, of course, and Mum hasn’t just smelt a threat nearby or something.”

 

“Regan raises an excellent point.” Their Grandad Aneirin told them soothingly. “Your Mother might have smelt something off, but it’s too late for him to move his nest, so he’s unsettled because he wants to move it, but can’t.”

 

“I hope that that’s all it is.” Farren said, being supported on both sides, his mate and lover tucked under his arm. His mate Georgie was pregnant and this sort of situation was not going to help her.

 

“Georgie, why don’t you go to Granddad Alexander’s? Grandma is watching all the kids there.” Braiden told her gently.

 

“I want to support Farren.” She said stubbornly.

 

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Tegan asked looking at the baby bump.

 

“We’ll be just fine.” Georgie said, putting a hand over her belly. “I’m not due for another six months.”

 

Farren gave her a kiss and he sighed. “I really hate this waiting.”

 

“Everyone does.” Calix said softly, understandably. He was still single and still childless, but then he moved around a lot, going to different dig sites all over the world. Braiden reasoned that it was a little difficult to find someone, or to maintain a relationship with them, when you flew off to another site in another country just a few months after first arriving. Calix’s life was rather unstable due to his chosen career.

 

There was a loud screech and they knew then that something was wrong. Their three remaining Dads’ were just gone, taking off running to their submissive mate and clattering on the stairs preceded two sleepy Faeries coming down.

 

“What’s going on?” Kallan asked worriedly.

 

Their Grandfather Aneirin went to them and he tucked one on either side of himself, holding them as the tiny twins held onto him, their fear palpable. Then Faeries always, _always_ , had incredibly strong bonds with their Mothers.

 

“Your Mum is having some problems with the baby, boys.”

 

“Will he be okay?” Cyneric asked.

 

“I’m sure he’ll be just fine.”

 

“The baby?” Kallan asked.

 

Aneirin sighed. “That I’m not sure about.” He admitted truthfully.

 

“But…Mum will be okay?” Cyneric asked and Braiden couldn’t hold it against him that he didn’t really care for the baby.

 

Cyneric was a Faerie and a young one at that. He remembered what Leolin was like, just four months younger than he was himself, when their Mum went to nest and he would ask after just their Mum, if their Mum would be alright. The twins didn’t understand the concept of a baby coming from their Mum yet, as Leolin hadn’t and truly they were even more disadvantaged than Leolin had been, as even though Leolin had been one of five, they were identical twins and it had taken them several years just to understand that they were actually two separate people with the same face and not just one person and that had set them back years in their development.

For all the twins cared (and the same had applied to Leolin when he’d been young too) their Mum had walked to the shops and bought the baby from a shelf. As long as their Mum came back, they didn’t care about anything else. Leolin had been exactly the same, Braiden still remembered arguing with Leolin when they were around fourteen about their Mum being a boy, trying to explain what a boyfriend was and how two boys could love one another. Leolin had been _fourteen_ and he just hadn’t understood and no amount of explaining it to him had helped him get his mind around that concept.

Another loud screech that was equal parts distressed and desperate and Braiden knew that something was seriously wrong and he sent a look to his brothers and sisters, trying to be strong because he was the oldest, but it was difficult when he wanted to breakdown into tears for the desolation that he could hear in his Mum’s calls.

Too quickly, much too quickly, he heard his Mum call for his Dads’, if the baby was fine and healthy, if his Mum was fine and healthy, then he would have preened with the baby for a few days to recover from the birth, that he’d called immediately…it did not bode well.

Everything happened too quickly then as they heard several more screams. Something was seriously wrong and without really thinking about it, he and his sibling found themselves outside in the garden. Braiden looked for his parents and he found them on the grass, not that far away. They’d moved to flatter ground that was brighter so that they could see.

His Mum was being held tightly by his Dad Nasta, who was almost wrestling with Harry who was trying to get to the baby in his Dad Max’s arms, having spell after spell cast. That was a bad sign too, that they were casting magic on a newborn.

The three Healers went to lend what help they could and Braiden’s heart was in his throat. His Mum wailed again and Braiden heard a sniffle. He turned to see Eva in tears and he pulled her forward by a delicate wrist and he tucked her into his body, holding her, even though he wanted nothing more than to join her in her tears.

Braiden closed his eyes and he tried not to wobble on his feet when he saw Healer Almus pull back and shake his head. The baby was dead. There was nothing that they could do.

Braiden felt the breath leave his lungs, he was only thinking about this a few hours earlier. Perhaps he was more intuitive than he realised, his Mum always did say that he was the most like him and that their bond was very strong, perhaps he’d been picking up on a little something more than nostalgic memories earlier.

 

“I think you’d best go inside. Braiden, Farren, go on.” Their Grandfather Aneirin chided them. “Your parents need a moment of privacy.”

 

Braiden pulled Eva with him as they went back into the house. They could no longer see their parents, but they could hear them. As soon as they were out of sight, the awful, heart breaking screams and wails started as his parents mourned their dead child. His brother or sister. Their first child in five years, the baby that they’d been so excited to have, that they had been so happy for and eagerly awaiting. Now that baby was dead. The miracle baby that they hadn’t believed that they would get after Larsen. It was almost too cruel. It just wasn’t fair.

Braiden sent a quick text to Boden and Rowan. He just wanted the comfort of his mates, like Farren had. Both of his mates replied that they’d be there immediately…they’d been waiting for his text to go through. He excused himself and he went to wait out in the front garden for his mates. Boden arrived first and Braiden threw himself into those arms and he tried to control himself so that he didn’t start all out bawling.

 

“Braiden, it’s alright.” Boden told him, holding him tighter.

 

“It’s not.” He cried. “Mum doesn’t deserve this!”

 

“No one ever deserves this.” Rowan’s voice came from behind him before he was sandwiched between both of his mates and he tried to absorb their comfort.

 

“Do they know what happened?”

 

Braiden shook his head and brushed his eyes of tears. “No, I think the baby was stillborn though. Mum must have known, he was crying before he went into labour. Then when the baby was born he called for my Dads’ immediately. The Healers couldn’t get the baby breathing again.”

 

“I’m so sorry, Braiden.” Rowan told him gently.

 

Braiden nodded and snuggled in tighter to Boden, reaching behind to pull Rowan tighter to his back and he tried to take safety and comfort from them. It took him several minutes to calm himself down before he separated himself from them and he sniffed and brushed his eyes again, breathing deeply.

 

“Do you feel a little better?” Boden asked him.

 

Braiden just nodded and he looked back to the house. He walked back in, leading his mates and there was his Mum, clutched on his Dad Blaise’s lap, being held tightly, wrapped in a blanket. He was deathly pale and quiet. His green eyes were too wide and glassy. His body was shaking. It would be a combination of grief, pain and the after effects of giving birth only a short while before.

 

“Mum.” He called out, trying to control the waver in his voice. He went to his knees in front of his parents and he rested his hands on bare, skinny, knobbly knees.

 

His Mum reached out to him and wrapped quivering arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. Braiden offered him no words. There was nothing that he or anyone else could say, but he could offer up his body to comfort his Mum, letting him hold him and hug him.

After just a minute, his Mum burst into tears and clutched at him desperately. A hand clenching in his hair, nails digging into his shoulder, but he didn’t care as he felt hot tears sliding down his neck.

 

“Why did he die?” His Mum’s voice demanded, his voice harsh and rough as he came back into his human self, from the feral Dracken he’d been staying as for the last few weeks. “He was fine yesterday. He was kicking and moving. Why did he die?!” He screeched. “What did I do wrong?”

 

“You did nothing wrong, Harry.” Blaise told him. “Nothing. Our boy just wanted to meet us too soon. He came out too soon.”

 

“Why did he come too soon?!” Harry cried.

 

“The cord was wrapped around his neck, Harry.” His Dad Nasta told him, leaning over the back of the settee to touch his mate. “Nothing and no one could have prevented it. It was just one of those things. If you’d left him where he was, he would have strangled himself, you had to try to get him out and you did, but he couldn’t survive, it was too soon.”

 

“Where is he?” Harry demanded. “Where is my baby?”

 

“Max has him.” Nasta said softly.

 

“I want him, I want to hold him.”

 

Nasta nodded and he turned to call Max, but he’d already heard Harry’s cries. He brought over a white blanket and Braiden swallowed a painful lump of grief as he saw the beautiful face of his dead brother.

Someone had dressed him, he was wearing a sleepsuit, scratch mitts and a hat. It was almost like he was sleeping, except he was far too pale and his chest wasn’t moving. There were no little snuffles or cries of annoyance as he was disturbed from his much desired sleep as he was passed from person to person.

His Mum sobbed and took the baby gently and Braiden moved back to Boden and Rowan, tears obscuring his vision.

 

“Why did he have to die?!” Their Mum demanded again through his own tears and his Dad Max went to his knees in front of Harry and the baby, taking Braiden’s vacated spot, and he bowed his head and started crying. He didn’t even cover his face as his hands were on either side of his Mum’s waist, holding him as they both looked at the baby that they had lost. It was just truly devastating.

 

Braiden turned to his own mates, pressing his wet cheek against Boden’s shirt and clutching at Rowan’s hands.

 

“Kids, why don’t you all go to Granddad Alexander’s? I think we need some time to say goodbye.” Their Dad Nasta told them gently, his eyes filled with tears he hadn’t let fall yet. He was trying to be strong for his mates too, but it was much more difficult with a house full of people. “You shouldn’t have to see this.”

 

They each said goodbye to their Mum and baby brother, then their four Dads’ before leaving to give them the privacy they needed, that they felt they couldn’t have while they were there, to breakdown with their grief.

Several of them had gone to their Granddad Alexander’s, he was sure, but Braiden needed a moment to cry himself, without his own kids watching.

 

“Our house?” Rowan asked, always so perceptive to his feelings and needs.

 

Braiden nodded and Boden wrapped him and Rowan in his arms and he Apparated. Braiden found himself in their bedroom and Boden pulled him to the bed. Boden sat on the bed and then pulled Braiden into his lap. Rowan snuggled up beside them and wrapped an arm around Braiden’s back.

 

“He was my baby brother.” He said, a small hiccup to his voice.

 

“You heard your Dad, there was no saving him.” Boden said gently. “If your Mum hadn’t gotten the baby out then he would have died anyway. It really is just one of those things, my love.”

 

“He had to try.” Rowan said. “He would have felt worse if he’d left the baby where he was and he’d died inside him without trying to save him. At least with getting him out there was a chance to save him, even just a small chance, leaving him where he was there was no chance, he would have strangled himself with the cord.”

 

Braiden nodded, understanding what was being said, but it didn’t really make anything better. He understood why it had happened, but he didn’t know why it _had_ to happen. He just let himself cry in Boden and Rowan’s arms for a little while longer before he pulled back and sniffed hard, reaching up to wipe his eyes, but Boden got there first, brushing his large thumbs under his eyes to wipe away the tears.

 

“Let’s go get our babies, I need to hold them.” He said softly.

 

“I’ll get their dinner on while you get them, if we get them to bed early, we can cuddle.” Rowan said.

 

“Byron won’t go for that.” Braiden said with a watery smile.

 

“He will.” Boden said. “He’s nine and he will listen to us, we’re his parents. You need some time to yourself and you need some peace. You will have it. Byron will just have to suck it up for a few nights.”

 

Braiden kissed Boden and stood up. He took his mate’s hand and the two of them went to get their four children while Rowan started an early dinner.

Braiden’s great-grandfather, Alexander, greeted them gently and he kissed Braiden’s forehead gently.

 

“Are you alright, sweetness?” He asked.

 

Braiden nodded. “Yes, I’ve had a good cry and now I just need my own babies.”

 

“Have they given you any trouble?” Boden asked.

 

Alexander laughed and patted Boden on the arm. “Of course not. Your boys are as good as gold.”

 

“You’d say that even if they weren’t.” Braiden accused with a smile. “I still remember messing up your house and pulling out all the cupboards and you still telling Mum and Dad that I was as good as gold.”

 

“Well I’m your granddad, you’re allowed to get away with murder in my house.” He said right back.

 

Braiden greeted his Grandmother with a kiss and accepted her gentle hug and he greeted his brothers and sisters too, those who hadn’t wanted to go back home, or those who had no families, like Calix, who wanted the company and comfort but had no one to give it to them.

 

“Dada!” Tate declared as he came toddling over to them and Braiden picked him up.

 

“Is Nana okay?” Isaac asked, following his beloved baby brother.

 

“He’ll be fine.” Braiden said softly. “He just needs some time to himself.

 

“What happened?” Byron asked. “Is his baby really dead?”

 

Braiden closed his eyes and he swallowed painfully.

 

“Yes, love.” Boden answered. “Sometimes it does happen. Babies are very delicate and vulnerable. They need so much care and attention, but sometimes they get into difficulties and they don’t make it.”

 

Byron looked so upset. “Could we have lost Tate like that?”

 

“We could have.” Braiden said honestly. “Any one of us could lose a baby, Byron. Sometimes they get sick, but sometimes we don’t know why they die, they just do.”

 

Byron licked his lips, but he nodded his understanding. “I’m sorry that Nana has lost his baby.”

 

“We all are, sweetheart.” Alexander said. “But we’ll support him and get him through it. It is a very upsetting thing, to lose a child, but we’ll see him treated carefully and the baby will be laid to rest respectfully.”

 

Braiden swallowed. Their brother would be laid to rest in the family cemetery that belonged to the Maddisons. There were hundreds upon hundreds of graves in the family plot going back a dozen generations of Drackens. It was also where Jaime and Cassie were buried. Every year, on Mollie’s birthday, she demanded to go and see her triplet brother and sister before she even thought of opening her presents. She would buy her brother and sister a present each, always the same thing. A candle that was charmed to never blow out. The candle would burn continually for a month and it made Mollie feel better to do so. Their baby brother would be joining Jaime and Cassie there.

 

“Come on, we’re going home.” Boden said to the boys, picking up their five year old Declan.

 

Braiden got Tate and Isaac and Boden used his hand on the back of Byron’s head to get him moving. It was going to be a harsh couple of weeks. It would be even worse when they would have to bury the baby. It even sounded wrong, burying a baby. Braiden tried to hold himself together, at least for the next few hours until his four boys were in bed. Then he would break down with his two mates to comfort him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Braiden clenched his hand around Boden and Rowan’s, one on either side of him, and he closed his eyes. He swallowed as he looked at all the unhappy, upset faces around him as everyone tried to come to terms with all that had happened.

The funeral of his baby brother, Eurion Bevan Potter-Delericey had been earlier that day and ever since, well, they had convened back at their childhood home, but Braiden couldn’t even sit down.

The sermon had been lovely, respectful, but it still couldn’t cover the fact that it had been for a newborn baby who hadn’t even gotten to taken his first breath of fresh air. His Dad Nasta had been able to hold the tiny coffin by himself.

Braiden swallowed and he closed his raw, gritty feeling eyes. He squeezed his mates’ hands and Boden moved Braiden’s hand to hold it with his other hand, the one on the far side of his body. His free hand, the one closest to Braiden’s body, went around his shoulders and Braiden turned his face into Boden’s neck and he sniffed.

 

Boden kissed the side of his head. “We love you.” He whispered. “If you need to leave…” He offered.

 

“My parents have the kids, they will be more than willing to keep them for a sleepover if you need some time.” Rowan added and it sounded so good to Braiden.

 

He nodded his head and Boden immediately went to excuse them. Braiden was worried that it would come across bad that he was the first to leave, but before Boden had even come back to them, others were excusing themselves as well. He wasn’t the only one who needed a bit of space and his Mum actually looked a little grateful and relieved. Perhaps that was his intuitive coming back into play again. His Mum needed his space too. Eurion had been Braiden’s baby brother, but he’d been his parents’ son. It must have hit them so hard to lose him, they would need time to themselves.

 

“Mum, do you want me to take Lyran, Caronwyn and Larsen?” Mace asked. “If you want some time to yourself, they can come have a sleepover with the kids.”

 

Larsen immediately perked up. “Can I, Mummy?” He asked.

 

Their Mum looked up, his eyes bloodshot and teary still. “Do you mind, Mace?”

 

“No, I wouldn’t have offered otherwise, Mum. Between the four of us we’ll look after them. Right?” He directed at his three mates, his submissive Tara, nodding seriously, her two other dominants, Lazarus and Steffon, nodding too. Tara was rather tall for a submissive, as she was five foot ten, but it reflected with her choice of dominant mates, as all three of them were nearer to seven feet than six. Both Lazarus, who preferred to be called Rus, and Steffon were subordinate to Mace, who was naturally their top dominant as he was such a stubborn, dominant personality and he topped in at seven feet of hulking muscle, he couldn’t be anything other than a top dominant and Tara had been smitten with him from first sight, mostly because he was the biggest lunkhead ever and had stood a good head taller than everyone else in her meeting hall.

 

Their Mum nodded gently. “I’ll…I’ll pick them up tomorrow.”

 

“You won’t.” Mace answered back sternly. “We’re keeping them for the week so you can actually have some proper time to yourself. They’ll be fine with us, just focus on yourself.”

 

“Thank you, Mace.” Their Mum said seriously, gratefully.

 

Braiden was so thankful to his brother in that moment. He didn’t think he had the strength to even have his own children around him at the moment, let alone his youngest brothers and sister. But Mace was always better at dealing with his own emotions. He could hold off his emotions and he could release them when he wanted to, usually in the form of running or in the gym. It had to have been his mastery of several different styles of martial arts that helped him, it was all about controlling one’s emotions and releasing them constructively. Mace had a steel control over his body and his emotions, he was the perfect person to take in Larsen, Lyran and Caronwyn so their parents could deal with their own grief. Cyneric and Kallan had already been taken by Leolin to spend some time with their older Faerie brother.

Mace collected up the three kids and Braiden hugged him gratefully. Of course hugging his baby brother, who was five years younger, was rather strange, as he felt like a tiny baby in those huge arms being rather slim and slender himself, to be squashed by the huge, bulky Mace who was several feet taller than him, was very strange.

Boden came to hold him and then they were making their own way home. Rowan was a huge help to him, pulling him by the hand up to their bedroom, getting him out of his suit and helping him into his softest, most comfortable pyjamas.

 

“I know you might not be hungry, but I ordered from our favourite take away place, you can just pick and nibble if you want to.” Boden said when he and Rowan both came back down in their pyjamas.

 

“Thank you, Boden.” Braiden said with a small smile.

 

“I set up the living room too. The food should be about half an hour, let me go get into my pyjamas and we’ll cuddle up on the sofa.”

 

Braiden could have cried as his mates did everything that he needed to feel better. A cuddle on the settee in their pyjamas with take away was probably the best thing he could have asked for.

 

“I’ll put ‘Up’ on.” Rowan said and Braiden let out a watery chuckle. “I know, I know.” Rowan smiled at him. “But you like that film and you need to be surrounded by all the things that you like today. You’re upset and we understand. So Boden and me will sandwich you up on the settee, we’ll eat take away, I’ve got chocolate ice cream in the freezer for afters, I made that shortbread that you love too and we’ll watch some Disney to cheer you up.”

 

“Thank you so much.” Braiden said, covering his face with one hand as he started crying.

 

“Shh, it’s alright, love. You’ve just buried a brother. You can cry and sob and get me and Boden all messy. It doesn’t matter. You are our beloved mate and we’re going to take care of you.”

 

“We will.” Boden said strongly as he scooped up him and Rowan, one in each arm. “Because we love you and you’d do exactly the same for us if we needed it.”

 

Braiden smiled as he saw that Boden had put three footstools in front of the settee and covered it with pillows and a blanket. There were plates and cutlery on the coffee table along with a bottle of Rowan’s favourite red wine that was always stocked in their house. There were several candles lit, but no other lights on. There was a box of tissues at the ready and Braiden couldn’t have loved these two people any more than he did in this moment. Everything was perfect for him to have a night with his mates, where he could eat if he wanted to, binge on junk food if he wanted to, drink if he wanted to and cry if he wanted to, all the while snuggled up in his pyjamas with two people whom he loved dearly.

He had buried his baby brother today, tiny Eurion Bevan, who hadn’t even gotten a chance to live, but who would never be forgotten. He was a member of their family, just as Jaime and Cassie were, and he was very much a loved person, just because he hadn’t gotten to meet them didn’t make that any less so.

The take away arrived and Boden brought it in and Rowan started ‘Up’ for them as Boden dished out all of Braiden’s favourites, which made him smile. He ate as he watched the film, resting against Boden as Rowan rested on him. It was his favourite position, to be sandwiched between both of his mates, all that was missing was a baby bump, but as the three of them were enjoying the wine, perhaps that was a good thing, for tonight at least. They watched another film, then Rowan went to dig out the ice cream and the shortbread. They didn’t even bother with bowls. Rowan just brought in three spoons, Braiden had the tub as he was in the middle and then he and his mates just ate right from the tub, the blanket covering their legs.

After all the food and the films were done with, Braiden finished his wine and he snuggled into Boden and then it took just several minutes before the tears came as he thought of Eurion. His mates made comforting noises and petted him and kissed him as he cried, but they knew exactly what he needed, they always did, and they knew that right now he needed to cry as a form of release. His crying would give him a headache, it always did, but tomorrow he would wake up to a headache reliever with his morning coffee and as he wiped his dribbling nose on Boden’s pyjama top, he realised exactly how lucky he was to have these two amazing people all for himself.

 

“I love you both so much.” He said through his tears.

 

“We love you too.” Rowan said gently, patting his back.

 

“Well you know I love you, you’re using my shirt as a tissue and I don’t give a fuck. That’s true love right there, Bray.”

 

Braiden had to laugh and he wiped his eyes with his hand and he lifted himself up to kiss Boden’s mouth, before he turned around and kissed Rowan. He had no idea how he would have gotten through this without the both of them, but thankfully he didn’t have to. He snuggled back into Boden and Rowan pressed in tighter to his back. He truly did have the greatest mates in the world, at least from his humble, incredibly biased view point. He was so grateful to have them right at this moment as he thought of his tiny baby brother. As he said his own private goodbye to Eurion Bevan, who had come just a little too soon.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This truly is a devastating chapter, but a lot of you were curious about some of the noted deceased babies and well…this one started as a look in on Braiden’s adult life and it turned into something much worse, but also more informative. It’s only at times like this when you see how incredibly strong the bonds of love can be and even though it’s devastating, it is truly wonderful to see. So we have a rather sad chapter, but it’s still a lovely chapter in its own way and despite the nature of it, I like it and I hope that you do too.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	54. Easter Eggcitement

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Sophie Fox, who I promised an Easter chapter several years ago and never got around to it. It might be a few years late, but I did eventually get to it.
> 
>  
> 
> 31 March 2002
> 
>  
> 
> Nasta – 42 years, 1 month
> 
> Max – 35 years, 6 months
> 
> Blaise – 22 years, 5 months
> 
> Draco – 21 years, 9 months
> 
> Harry – 21 years, 8 months
> 
> -
> 
> Braiden – 4 years, 7 months
> 
> Quintuplets – 4 years, 3 months
> 
> Eva and Ave – 3 years, 2 months
> 
> Taren – 2 years, 1 month
> 
> Lai – 1 year, 5 months
> 
> Xabiere – 1 month, 8 days.
> 
>  

 

Easter Eggcitement

 

Harry couldn’t help but laugh as two excited four year olds darted past him, hyped up on chocolate and ice cream.

 

“Regan, Calix. You be careful.” He warned automatically as they ran as fast as they could over the grass. He was spared the most fleeting of glances, and that was it, they didn’t even slow down, but then they were excited…and full of treats and sugar.

 

They’d already eaten the single Easter egg each that they’d been allowed, but they’d had ice cream after their lunches too and the ensuing double sugar rush had given all of his older children twice as much energy as normal, he and his mates were just waiting for them to inevitably crash now.

He put his arms behind him and leaned back on them, watching his ever growing family happily as he relaxed on his blanket.

 

“Ma.”

 

He looked to his left and smiled as a tiny fist rubbed at a golden eye.

 

“Afternoon, Leolin. Did you have a nice nap?” He asked softly as he helped his four year old Faerie baby roll over and onto his hands and knees as he woke up more.

 

“Yuh.” Leolin answered as he crawled cumbersomely to Harry’s lap and snuggled in. Leolin wasn’t walking yet. He had maybe a dozen words in his vocabulary, but he understood almost everything of what they said to him.

 

Harry offered him a bottle of very watery juice and he watched adoringly as Leolin laid on his back, in Harry’s lap, between his legs, and drank deeply, his head pillowed on Harry’s lap as he looked up at him, gold eyes almost critically staring at him.

Harry popped another chunk of chocolate into his mouth and went back to watching his nine babies run around with his mates.

Max was wrestling with Farren some way away, their four year old grappling and kicking at Max as he tired himself out as he tried to break his Dad’s hold on his hands, rough housing in a way that his brothers and sisters couldn’t handle. It always made Farren happy to do this with his Dad, or his Granddad Myron, who was just as happy to throw him around and play rough.

Their four year old Braiden was running around the garden, screeching with his favourite lion teddy, Leonie, in his hand as Draco chased him, purposefully missing every time and letting his hands slip from Braiden’s waist without gripping him. Braiden screeched louder and ran off again, giggling, wearing himself out so he would sleep later.

With a grunt, Nasta came to sit behind him and he wrapped his arms around his shoulders as his long legs cradled either side of his body. He laid his lips against his bare neck and kissed and nibbled.

Harry smiled and tilted his head to the side to give him better access.

 

“Da.” Leolin exclaimed happily as he popped his bottle of juice from his mouth and turned his eyes up to Nasta.

 

Nasta rubbed his fingers under Leolin’s chin and smiled at him.

 

“Did you have a good nap, Leolin?”

 

“Yuh.” Leolin repeated.

 

Harry tickled his little belly and smiled as Leolin giggled before his Unseelie face came back out and he frowned up at him.

 

“Ma, nuh.”

 

“Does my adorable little boy not like being tickled?”

 

“Nuh.”

 

Nasta chuckled into his ear and nuzzled his scratchy stubble against his cheek.

 

“I thought you shaved just an hour ago!” Harry complained.

 

“I did.” Nasta replied easily.

 

“Damn, you’re virile!” Harry chuckled as he rested back and allowed Nasta to support his body and most of his weight.

 

He’d given birth to another baby boy just a month ago, so his mates were not letting him do much, despite the fact that he felt completely fine. In fact he felt better than fine. He’d had a string of three singletons with his Taren, little Lay-lay and now Xabiere too. He hadn’t had any multiples since his identical twins, Eva and Ave, three years previous and he felt wonderful.

Though speaking of his identical twins.

 

“Blaise! Stop those girls from tearing each other’s hair out!” He shouted over the garden.

 

Blaise stopped playing his game with Tegan and the year old Lai and turned to the two missing girls, who were rolling around the grass, tiny hands fisted in each other’s long, curly, chestnut coloured hair, yanking as hard as they could. They were both screeching and screaming, but still they didn’t let go of one another. Perhaps giving them so much sugar had not been the best of ideas, they were volatile enough without any added assistance.

Blaise ran over and started working on worming their fingers from strands of hair, hefting one twin away from the other.

 

“He’s not going to discipline them, is he?” Harry sighed as he watched Blaise falter slightly now that he had the girls apart. “We really need to get him more comfortable with disciplining them, if the kids work out that he won’t put them in time out, then he’ll immediately become the weak link in our parenting structure and they’ll abuse it.”

 

“I’ve got it.” Nasta told him as he kissed the top of Harry’s head and stood up.

 

Harry looked back down at Leolin and smiled at him as those gold eyes stared up at him. Leolin grinned back, showing off five lone teeth. They still checked his mouth every morning for signs of newly erupting teeth.

 

“Who is my adorable little Faerie?” Harry cooed to him, smoothing jet black hair away from Leolin’s face. “You look beautiful with black hair and those big gold eyes.”

 

“Ma!” Leolin grinned up at him.

 

Harry sat Leolin up and got him onto his feet. He couldn’t walk yet, per se, but he was gaining more balance the longer they supported him upright. He allowed them to hold him upright, but he refused to take any steps by himself.

Nasta came back to him, having assisted Blaise with the discipline of the twins, and he sat back behind Harry, cradling his body once more.

 

“How are you feeling?” Nasta asked him, wrapping his arms around Harry’s chest. “Are you tired at all? Sore?”

 

“No, I’m alright.” Harry said happily. “We had a good night, our baby Xabiere was so good last night.”

 

Harry peered over to the side, at the edge of the blanket, where he had placed Xabie on a beanbag under a sun parasol. He was still napping, his little body all curled up under a light blanket.

Their year old Lai came crawling over, very content with the crinkly rabbit that a very adoring Kimberly had given as a gift for Easter, in place of any chocolate treats as none of them liked their young babies having so much unneeded sugar so young.

 

“Hello, Lay-lay.” Harry cooed, as he picked the year old baby up before settling Lai into his lap, kissing a sun-warmed cheek.

 

“Mama.” Lai giggled, one hand clenching the rabbit to hear it crinkle.

 

“I’m going to go sort their dinners.” Max said, jogging over to them. He had sweat on his forehead and it seemed he’d had enough of wrestling with their four year old son.

 

“Okay. Just do something quick and easy.”

 

“I was thinking of flaked white fish, pasta and some green veg.”

 

“That sounds good.” Harry grinned.

 

“I’ll make you a small plate too, just a snack though, you don’t want to ruin your own dinner later.”

 

“I love you.” Harry said.

 

Max snorted, but hunched himself over more than double, just so that he could kiss him.

 

“You only love me for my cooking skills.” He teased.

 

“You forgot to mention that sexy body too.” Harry winked.

 

Max laughed. “No.” He chastised. “Xabe is only a month old. I don’t want another one of _him_ for a while. If we could guarantee the baby would come out like this little honey, then yes.” He said, tickling a finger into Lai’s neck, smiling at the shrieks and giggles it resulted in. “But I am not putting up with another one of Xabe.”

 

Harry laughed. “No, I fully agree. We’ll just have to use protection for a while.” He grinned sultrily. “At least it’ll keep the mess down, which will make Draco happier at least.”

 

“What will make me happier?” Draco asked, coming to collapse on the blanket for a breather. Lai immediately moved over to Draco.

 

“Wearing protection later, so we don’t accidentally end up with another Xabiere.” Harry chuckled.

 

“Are we joking about that, or being serious?” Draco asked.

 

“Well I’m serious.” Harry said. “I’m going to be hyped up on chocolate, I need to release some energy before I’ll be able to sleep.”

 

Max whooped. “I can’t wait until tonight then! Let’s get these kids fed and into bed.”

 

Harry laughed as his mate ran off towards the house.

 

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Nasta asked him concernedly. “There’s no soreness or any lingering pain?”

 

Harry shook his head. “After our string of singletons my recovery has been amazing. I should have singletons more often.” He joked. As if any of them could actually control that. “I’m feeling much better and though I will take things easy for a while longer, I’m certainly not in any pain and I haven’t been for a week or more.”

 

Nasta kissed him and then nibbled gently against his neck. It made Harry squirm and giggle.

 

“You’re wriggling about so much, are you being attacked by ants?” Nasta breathed into his ear. “Do you want me to save you from the ants?”

 

“What sort of question is that?” Harry asked, playing along. “I shouldn’t have to ask for my mates to save me! You should just do it, quickly, before I’m eaten alive by ants.”

 

Nasta chuckled and pulled Harry, carefully, onto his lap so that Leolin wouldn’t topple with the removal of Harry’s body. Their baby Lai had already crawled over to Draco, they had the same silver-white hair that was all but glowing in the sun.

 

“Is that better?” Nasta asked him. “Are the ants still bothering you?”

 

“Ants? No, but a lead pipe is now insistently prodding at me.” He laughed.

 

“Keep the smut from the children’s ears.” Draco demanded.

 

Harry laughed and lifted his arms to loop them around Nasta’s neck. It was a nice, bright, sunny day, but it wasn’t that hot, still being spring. Not that that had stopped Nasta from covering them all in sun cream and insisting that the little ones be kept in the shade.

The two of them kissed and Harry rested back against his mate with a happy sigh. He loved afternoons like this, where none of them were in work because of the long Easter weekend, Nasta hadn’t been drafted to look after the dragons, there’d been no emergency or pandemic for Max to sort out, and though he’d just given birth, he felt fantastic because Xabie had been a singleton, as had the two babies before him. Everything was amazing today, a little slice of paradise, even if their children were smeared with ice cream and chocolate, with more treats to come. It was one of the only days of the year that Nasta wouldn’t complain about how many treats they had.

Harry was pulled off of the blanket to accompany Leolin, as their Faerie baby slowly and hesitantly crawled off over the grass. He was heading, surprise surprise, right for the little patch of daisies they had growing from the grass. His mates refused to cut the grass until the summer and he had always hated cutting the grass back at the Dursleys, so it was almost like a jungle at the moment. It was amusing Leolin to no end as he made his way through the overlong grass.

Their Faerie baby made it to the patch of daisies and he plucked them up, bringing them to his nose and smelling them as he sat back on his knees. Harry smiled at him. Leolin was growing and getting stronger and he was developing so well. He’d have to invite the Faerie family around to come and see him again, it had been a few weeks since Dain, Kailen, Warren, Eitri, Ezrah and Lathen had come to see Leolin. Harry missed his friends in Eitri and Ezrah, it had been a while since they’d popped over just for a cup of tea and a day of being attacked and mobbed by babies.   

 

“Hey, dinners up, come on kids!” Max yelled from the back porch.

 

The kids all stopped what they were doing, then Farren led the charge back to the house and into the kitchen.

Harry chuckled and picked up Leolin, while Draco carried Lai and Nasta grabbed Xabiere. The three of them walked to the house, as Blaise tried to catch their two year old Taren, who did not want his dinner and instead wanted to stay outside.

Harry washed Leolin’s hands for him and then settled him into his booster seat to eat his pasta. Harry sat next to him and dug in happily to the pasta, broccoli, peas and courgette with flakes of cod that Max had put down for him. Max really was an amazing cook, Harry would never get tired of Max’s cooking.

The kids were all eating, Regan asking quietly for a glass of juice, Tegan all but shouting out Regan’s request as a demand for her twin to get his juice. Max laughed and took the cup from the counter and placed it in front of Regan, planting a kiss to his head. He’d already been pouring drinks for all of the kids.

He placed a plastic beaker in front of all of them, the beakers matching their plates. Harry was included in getting a glass of juice and he also got a kiss to the head. He snorted, even as he shovelled pasta into his mouth.

 

“You’re as bad as the kids.” Blaise told him, having chased down Taren, washed his hands and was now sat beside him, encouraging him to eat.

 

Harry swallowed. “I’ve just given birth to our darling son. I’m hungry!” He complained.

 

“I love it when you get all hungry and nibbly.” Max said with a dirty smirk.

 

“Nibbly.” Harry giggled, unable to help himself.

 

Draco snorted. “Darling son. Where is this darling son you speak of? Where are you hiding him?”

 

Harry grinned. “Xabie is just a squalling royal, you should be proud that he’s taking after you.”

 

Draco looked affronted, but the rest of his mates just laughed.

 

“Apple. Daddy, I want apple.”

 

The five of them looked to Farren, who was looking at Max pleadingly with an already empty plate.

 

Their biggest mate kissed Farren adoringly, before taking an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter and handing it over. Farren immediately bit into it and chewed happily.

Harry finished his own small plate of pasta and sat back happily, patting his belly. It was still a little tender from his self-caesarean, but there was no pain or anything anymore.

Once all the kids were done, and had had a piece of fruit each, only Leolin being awkward, because he wanted ‘vado’ which was his word for avocado. Max sighed, shook his head, but he picked up an avocado, cut it in half and pitted it and then diced it and put it into a bowl.

 

“How he even likes avocado on its own, without chicken or something to pair it with, I don’t even know.” Max said. “He must get that from one of you lot.”

 

“I don’t even like the _smell_ of avocado.” Harry grimaced, twisting away from the creamy green cubes that Leolin was eating with utter relish. “They always look so slimy, and their skins look like crocodiles.”

 

His mates laughed at him, but it was Draco who admitted to liking avocados.

 

“I slice them into sandwiches.” He said.

 

“That’s just utterly vile.” Harry wrinkled his nose.

 

“I don’t say that when you put a tablespoon of honey in your tea.” Draco pointed out.

 

“But that’s honey, and it’s a drizzle, not a tablespoon…if I was putting in half a bottle of vinegar, I’d understand, but avocado in a _sandwich_ , Draco!”

 

“I made one last month and Leolin started chewing on it. I’m sure that’s where… _this_ , has come from.” He said easily, waving a hand at Leolin chewing up cubes of the fruit.

 

Harry laughed. They were all rapidly getting used to sharing food with their kids. It didn’t matter what they had, if it was a sandwich, a bowl of soup, or even just a biscuit or two, they had to share it. Harry had had a toasted sandwich the other day and he’d left it on the coffee table to answer the door for a parcel. It had taken him less than five minutes to sign for the parcel, put it on the table in the passageway and then get back to the living room. He had come back to find several little bite marks in his sandwich.

Leolin was the worst at the moment, because he was enjoying his new teeth. He was biting everything, from the coffee table, to Max’s robe buttons, Nasta’s shoes and, of course, any food that they made for themselves. They were a little more indulgent of sharing food with Leolin, because he’d been mostly on a completely milk diet for so long that getting a bit of variety into him, solid food at that, made them very happy.

 

“So this avocado phase is completely Draco’s fault, just as the ham, brie and red grape toasties are Blaise’s fault.” Max clapped his hands. “Wonderful.”

 

“It’s called croque-monsieur.” Blaise said with a sniff.

 

“Why did you have to ruin a ham and cheese toastie with grapes?” Harry teased. “Just use cheddar and make it properly.”

 

“I refuse to take my culinary tastes from you, our diets would be severely limited if we did. You don’t like most cheeses, you don’t like seafood, you don’t like avocado, you don’t even like liver or kidneys.”

 

Harry pulled a face at the very thought. “It’s fried organs!” He complained.

 

“Tasty though.” Max said happily as he handed out tea.

 

“You’re easier to please in Dracken form.” Draco teased. “We just toss you a dead animal and you strip it bare to the bones in fifteen minutes.”

 

Harry’s stomach rumbled and he looked at it and laughed. “I guess you’ve just changed the menu for tonight.” He said with a grin. “I really want to strip an animal carcass to the bone.”

 

Max groaned. “I had a really nice shepherd’s pie planned for tonight.”

 

“Have you prepped it?” Nasta asked calmly.

 

“No.” Max sighed.

 

“Then we hunt for dinner tonight, then we have your wonderful shepherd’s pie for tomorrow.” Nasta said, playing peacekeeper.

 

Max smiled. “Okay, but we hunt in Canada.”

 

“You just want to show off, taking down a massive bear.” Blaise complained.

 

“I need to feed up my darling lovers.”

 

“If you’re hunting for bears, I’ll stay here and watch over Harry.” Nasta said. “Which puts you in charge of Draco and Blaise.”

 

“We’re not submissives.” Draco complained, but this was an old argument that always ended in the same way. Nasta pulling rank as their top dominant and handing Max temporary top dominancy over Draco and Blaise.

 

“We know that you’re not submissives, but I want you to be protected also. Our hierarchy demands that you’re both protected, I am not going to be there as I’m staying at home, so it falls to Max to protect you both as our subordinate mates. You both know this, let us not argue about it again.”

 

Draco sighed, but nodded. Blaise just drank his tea, Harry could almost see him pretending that it was coffee.

Harry stretched when his kids started slipping down from their chairs and he picked up Leolin and carried him into the larger family room, herding the other kids into the room as well, giving them each a small Easter egg that was barely bigger than a duck egg. All of them screeched and giggled happily, unwrapping their new eggs and biting into them. There would be chocolate everywhere tonight, in the carpet, on the cushions, on the settees, but Harry didn’t care, he would clean up with magic later. The kids would need their baths and then an hour of quiet time before they were put to bed, so he didn’t mind that they were getting chocolate all over their faces and in their hair.

 

“We’ll stay and help with their baths first.” Draco insisted as he walked past Harry and gave him a kiss. “Then we’ll go while you and Nas are putting them to bed.”

 

Harry nodded at the logic of that. Bath time was usually a two man job, which would leave no one to watch the remaining kids. So it would be quicker, and easier, if all five of them helped bathe the kids first.

Max brought in a feeding Xabiere and Harry cocked his head. He hadn’t heard his newborn son crying.

 

“I caught him just as he opened his mouth to scream.” Max grinned. “Amazing timing if I do say so myself.”

 

Harry snickered, but said nothing as he rocked Leolin on his lap. He usually went nice and quiet after he ate. He would need to have his bath first, with Xabe, Lai and Taren.

 

“Pass him here, love. Let’s get him sorted out.” Nasta said, taking Leolin from him a while later and going to bathe him.

 

Harry was left with his older children as Blaise took Lai and Draco got a hold of Taren to go and bathe them. Max finished feeding Xabiere and then took him for his own bath. It was much easier using this system, as they could bathe four babies at once and it took less time to get them all in and out of the bath. It was going to be hell when the kids all started wanting to bathe themselves, but that would not be for several more years, Harry wouldn’t allow it.

Once all of the kids were bathed and dressed for bed, Leolin, Xabiere, Lai and Taren were already fast asleep in their cots, or rather a bassinet in Xabie’s case, and all the others were in their pyjamas with their quiet toys.

 

“Right, we’re off now.” Max said, coming to kiss him and then Nasta. “You look after them until we’re back.” He directed at the later, diving in to peck his lips again.

 

Nasta snorted. “I will. Go and get us some dinner.”

 

Harry kissed his three mates goodbye and then he turned back to his children, watching the time and then hurrying Eva and Ave to their bedroom once their bedtime came around. He read them a story and tucked them in and he carefully walked back down the stairs to Nasta and the remaining five oldest kids, who had fifteen more minutes of quiet play before bed.

 

“Have you given them a warning?” Harry asked as he sat beside Nasta and snuggled in.

 

Nasta nodded. “Yeah, every ten minutes since they had half an hour remaining. They know that bedtime is coming up.”

 

Harry hummed and settled himself on Nasta for several more minutes. “This was a good Easter.” He said randomly.

 

“It was. It helped that none of us were working.” Nasta agreed. “Kids, you have ten minutes of play left, then it’s bedtime.” He said clearly, the five kids stopping their play and looking at him as he spoke, then going back to their toys.  

 

“I shouldn’t be this hungry.” Harry laughed. “I know I only had a little bit of pasta, but it was only two hours ago.”

 

“They should take another hour more to hunt.” Nasta said, holding him closer. “I’m sure it’s just because you’ve recently been pregnant. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, _Cariad_.”

 

Harry hummed. “At least tonight I’m going to get a decent meal. We might have to skip the sex though.” He laughed. “Or at least I will. I’m not going to be able to move after this.”

 

Nasta snorted. “None of us will be able to move after this meal, especially if Max does take down a bear.”

 

“What do you mean _if_?” Harry laughed. “Of course he’s going to take down a bear, he said he would, so I wouldn’t put it past him to stay out there until he _has_ caught one.”

 

Nasta laughed and nodded. “Our kitchen is going to look like the set of a horror film tonight.”

 

“I’m sorry. I know I get messy with hunted meals.” Harry said.

 

“Don’t apologise for eating, you know we don’t care.” Nasta told him gently.

 

Harry smiled and turned his head to kiss Nasta’s neck. His mate let out a soft, slow breath.

 

“Kids, five more minutes.” Harry warned. “Then it is bedtime.”

 

“I’ll take Braiden, Farren and Calix.” Nasta said.

 

Harry nodded. “I’ll handle Regan and Tegan then.”

 

They gave the kids a two minute warning, telling them to pick up their toys before bed and they watched as their five beautiful children did as asked. Then it was juggling the five of them up the stairs and to bed, reading them a bedtime story and tucking them in.

Harry came out of Tegan and Regan’s room just as Nasta was carrying a sleepy Braiden to his own bedroom. Harry watched with a smile as Nasta murmured softly to their oldest son in Welsh as he took him to bed. He took this time to peek in on all the kids, on Leolin in his own room, on Eva and Ave, on Taren and Lai, and then in on Xabiere, who was sleeping peacefully in the bassinet at their bedside.

 

“Are they all okay?” Nasta asked quietly from the doorway.

 

Harry nodded. “All perfectly fine, and fast asleep.” He said happily, moving over to Nasta, who shut the door and then took him downstairs.

 

Harry fell onto the settee with a happy sigh. Nasta followed him down and they both snuggled together. Harry gave a cheeky grin, then swung himself up and into Nasta’s lap, rocking a little.

 

“You know, we have another hour or so until they come back. We’re all alone with no babies…we could just, have a bit of fun.” He whispered into Nasta’s ear, giving it a little nip to encourage him. Nasta loved little nips and bites, he had a real biting fetish.

 

Nasta chuckled deeply. “You’re so naughty when you get your own way.”

 

“Of course.” Harry said with a grin. “Getting my own way is the biggest turn on ever.”

 

Nasta snorted, but sat forward, kissing him deeper.

 

“Of course, knowing that I’m getting fed fresh, hot meat later makes me want fresh, hot meat now.” He said wiggling slightly on Nasta’s lap to get his point across. Nasta laughed.

 

“Come here, _Caru._ ” Nasta said a little gruffly, and stood with him, carrying him through to the smaller living room and laying him on the rug in front of the fire. “We have a while before the others get back, let’s make this Easter one to remember.”

 

Harry laughed and gave himself over to Nasta completely. He really would be tired and far too full to do anything later. It was going to be the best Easter ever with all the chocolate he’d eaten that morning, amazing sex with Nasta and a nice tender bear to sink his teeth into very soon. His mates really did spoil him and he loved them for it. He was already planning on making next Easter even better than the years before, it would be difficult to beat this year, but he was very determined and what he wanted, he usually always got, as long as it was within reason, and he could convince Nasta. Of course amazing sex always mellowed Nasta out and it was always best to ask for what he wanted while Nasta was still resting in post-orgasmic bliss. Harry grinned up at his top dominant, who smiled back, not understanding the real reason he was grinning so widely, but not caring as he bent his head to kiss him. Harry’s plots and schemes were pushed to the side in favour of sheer enjoyment and pleasure. He would start on making next year’s Easter better when it was closer, for now he just wanted to enjoy his beloved mate.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  
> 
> A/N: Just a little peek in on the boys and the kids for you lovelies in celebration of chocolate day. I’m back in work now tonight, so I was really worried about getting this one out, but I got up early enough to sort it, thankfully. I hope you enjoyed it, though I know it’s only short fluff. I was tempted to add the smut and the bear feast, but I ultimately ran out of time, so I decided to leave it where I did and leave the rest up to your imaginations.
> 
>  
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So here is the first on the inside look on what Harry’s mates’ lives were like before him. I had to start with Nasta, I showed you that he’s closed off and broody, but this is the first time that I’ve shown you why he’s that way.  
> This scene had no place in the main story, so I’m so happy to have gotten it out somehow, I hope you all enjoy it because it’s Christmas Eve, I’ve just got home from a night shift, I’m going to forget about all the cooking and cleaning I have to do today and just sleep, who said I never took any me time? 
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


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